/-v 


<55:5sV  OF  P;f/,V(:u> 

SEP  25  1963  ^ 


BX  9225  .G63  A4  1860 
Gordon,  Joseph,  1819. 
The  life  and  writings  of 

Rev.  Joseph  Gordon 

REV.  JOSEPH  GORDON 


THE 


fi\ 


LIFE    AND    WKITINGS 

REV.   JOSEPH  GORDON. 


WRITTEN    AND    COMPILED    BY    A    COMMITTEE    OF 
THE   FREE    PRESBYTERIAN    SYNOD. 


CINCINNATI: 

PUBLISHED  FOR  THE  FREE  PRESBYTERIAN  SYNOD. 
18  6  0. 


PREFACE. 


Kev.  Joseph  Gordon  was  one  of  a  few  ministers,  who  uni- 
ted and  formed  the  Free  Presbyterian  Church,  in  18-i7.  In 
the  midst  of  prevailing  declension  and  Hunkerism,  they  came 
out  from  their  ecclesiastical  connections,  with  a  manifesto  of 
principles  adverse  to  the  popular  religion  of  the  day  ;  and  on 
these  they  based  the  new  organization.  During  seven  years 
he  was  the  editor  of  the  Free  Presbyter-ian — the  organ  of  the 
new  formed  church.  After  his  death,  the  Free  Synod  at  its 
next  meeting  held  in  Ripley,  0.,  in  October  1658,  appointed  a 
committee  of  two  persons  to  write  a  biography  of  the  deceased 
and  compile  a  selection  from  his  writings,  and  have  them  pub- 
lished. Of  this  committee,  Rev.  T.  M.  Finney,  of  Martins- 
burg,  was  one.  The  other  member  expected  him  to  write  the 
biography,  and  aid  in  selecting  from  the  writings  of  the  de- 
ceased. After  a  lingering  sickness  of  some  four  months,  Mr. 
Finney  died  on  the  20th  of  July,  1859,  without  having  begun 
the  work.  Amid  a  pressure  of  other  duties  the  surviving 
member  of  the  committee  was  compelled  to  dispatch  the  mat- 
ter in  a  short  time,  and  without  the  advantage  that  even  his 
limited  share  of  ability  might  have  given  it,  with  more  leisure 
and  attention.  This  statement  extends  to  the  biography,  the 
selections  and  the  arrangement,  but  of  course  not  to  the  writ- 
ings of  the  deceased.  If,  however,  the  humble  effort  helps  to 
preserve  the  memory  of  one  exceedingly  dear  to  him,  and  in 
any  good  degree  promotes  the  cause  of  truth,  and  righteous- 
ness, and  church  reform,  he  will  be  thankful  and  satisfied. 


contents: 


Preface 3 

Introduction 8 

Memoir. 

Lines  on  the  Death  of  Rev.  J.  Gordon 18 

Presbytery  of  St.  Clairsville— " Case  of  Rev.  J.  Gordon" 25 

"  Rev.  J.  Gordon  has  died  " 42 

Obituary 43 

Religious  Articles. 

Religion  and  Reform 51 

We  should  be  Men  and  AVomen  of  Devoted  Piety 54 

Mission  of  the  Free  Presbyterian  Church 56 

What  Can  I  Do  to  Bring  the  World  to  God  ? 60 

What  is  Necessary  to  the  Efficiency  of  the  Church  in  Doing  Good  ?.  61 

Have  Faith  in  God 64 

i'  Stingy  Christians" 6T 

Power  of  Prayer 67 

Peace  with  God 70 

Christian  Integrity 73 

The  Religion  of  Principle > 76 

"Ambassadors  for  Christ" 77 

Duty  of  the  Christian  Minister 79 

"  The  Harvest  is  Past,  the  Summer  is  Ended,  and  We   are   not 

Saved."— Jer.  viii :  20 81 

"0  Lord,  Revive  Thy  Work." 83 

Christ's  Divinity  and  Atonement 85 

Samuel  Lewis 88 

"Ultraism" 90 

Death  of  Henry  Clay 93 

Jesus  Christ  Driven  from  the  United  States 96 


«3r 


Tl  CONTENTS. 

Is  it  Consioteut  for  Free  Presbyterians  to  Commune  with  Churches 

which  Fellowship  Slavery 99 

Radical  and  Conservative 100 

Schism 102 

Christian  Union 106 

Unity  of  the  Church 109 

Southern  Revivals 113 

Revival  Excitements 114 

Revivals  of  Religion 119 

Decay  of  Public  Virtue — Its  Cause  and  Cure 121 

Creeds '. 124 

Scientific  and  Moral  Articles. 

Christianity  and  Science 127 

Science  and  Christianity — Another  Coincidence 131 

Geology 132 

War 186 

War 140 

Martial  Law  Destroys  Personal  Accountability 144 

True  and  False  Heroism 146 

"  Look  on  This  Picture,  and  on  This" 149 

Drunkard-Making 152 

Controversial  Articles. 

Communication  from  the  Hon.  Horace  Mann 156 

Reply 160 

Imprisonment  of  W.  L.  Chaplin 165 

Can  Crime  be  Legalized? 167 

Can  Crime  be  Legalized  ? 168 

Proscription - 172 

Is  there  a  Law  for  the  Rendition  of  Fugitive  Slaves? 174 

Higher  and  Lower  Law 178 

Outside  the  Range  of  the  Divine  Operations 179 

Savage 181 

Dr.  McGill  on  the  Free  Presbyterian  Church 182 

Cant 185 

Sound  Doctrine , 189 

An  Accommodating  D.  D 193 

"  The  Spirit  of  Abolitionism" 195 

Injustice  to  the  Dead 197 

Slavery  in  the  Old  School  General  Assembly 199 


CONTENTS.  Vll 

Misdirection  of  Anti-Slavery  Effort , 201 

"No  Apology  for  Schism" 205 

"Candid  Answers" 207 

Sidney  Presbytery  and  Rev.  William  Perkins 212 

Hard  Names 218 

A  Standing  Testimony 220 

Numbers  against  Principle 224 

Position  of  the  New  School  Presbyterians 226 

Apostasy 228 

Miscellaneous  Articles. 

Another  Benevolent  Society  Needed 232 

Publications  of  the  American  Reform  Tract  and  Book  Society 237 

What  is  a  Religious  Newspaper? 238 

Cheap  Newspapers 241 

Lecture  of  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson 243 

Lecture  by  Bayard  Taylor 246 

Colonization 248 

Co-existence  of  Liberty  and  Slavery  Impossible 251 

Slavery  and  the  Slave  Trade 252 

Perversion  of  Scripture 255 

Anti-Slavery  Men  in  Pro-Slavery  Organizations 257 

Sentiments  against  Slavery 261 

Religious  Instruction  of  Slaves 266 

Bible  Revision 274 

The  Form  of  Godliness  without  the  Power , 280 

Decrease  of  Theological  Students 283 

Trouble  in  the  Episcopal  Church 286 

Catholicism  and  Civil  Liberty 288 

Sectarian  Selfishness 290 

Speaking  Evil  of  Dignities 293 

The  New  Pro-Slavery  Church 296 

Movements  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 299 

Effete  Orthodoxy 303 

Covenanting 305 

Modern  Infidelity 307 

The  Waiter-Killer  Acquitted 311 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  thunderstorm  and  the  tornado  produce  great  ethereal 
commotion.  There  is  a  terrific  war  of  elements — the  heavens 
are  covered  with  blackness — bolts  of  livid  lightning  stream 
and  flash  across  the  horizon — the  hoarse  thunders  bellow — 
the  storm  rages— and  the  passive  earth  is  swept  with  desola- 
tion. With  the  fertilizing  rain  it  is  different.  It  descends 
from  the  calm  and  quiet  clouds  with  gentle  distillation,  and  a 
luxuriant  vegetation  rejoices  after  it.  Yet  we  gaze  with  emo- 
tions of  grandeur  and  sublimity  on  the  one ;  and  are  but  lit- 
tle impressed  with  the  dull  quiet  of  the  other.  So  it  is  with 
the  men  who  have  lived,  and  acted,  and  gone  to  their  last 
resting-place.  One  class  filled  the  earth  with  excitement  and 
terror.  Their  course  could  have  been  traced  by  the  stormy 
commotions  around  them,  and  could  be  readily  followed  by 
the  cheerless  and  melancholy  desolations  after  them. 

To  the  eye  of  the  common  observer  there  are  the  scenes  of 
exciting  violence,  and  the  success  of  brilliant  achievements  ; 
but  on  closer  investigation,  there  lie  behind  these  conquests, 
the  destruction  of  unnumbered  ties  of  kindred  and  affection, 
and  the  desolation  of  hopes  and  prospects  never  estimated. 
Those  of  the  other  class  are  too  quiet  to  excite  much  attention, 
yet  their  influence  is  on  the  side  of  peace,  virtue  and  happi- 
ness. Like  the  course  of  the  fertilizing  shower,  their  way  is 
strewed  with  benefactions  to  the  race.  The  Alexanders, 
Caesars  and  Napoleons  employ  many  pens — fill  many  volumes, 
and  these  give  deep  interest  to  millions ;  while  the  Luthers, 
Melancthons,  Howards,  Judsons  and  Spensers,  the  real  bene- 
factors of  the  world,  furnish  but  tame  materials  for  the  biog- 
rapher and  the  historian. 


INTRODUCTION.  9 

To  this  there  is  an  occasional  exception.  When  a  moral 
hero,  in  fighting  the  battles  of  the  Lord  for  truth  and  right- 
eousness, meets  bloody  opposition  ;  when  persecution  lights 
her  fires  and  brings  forth  her  racks  and  tortures  ;  and  when, 
in  the  strength  of  faith,  he  triumphs  or  dies  in  the  contest, 
then  his  life  assumes  poetic  interest. 

It  is  also  true  that  men  cf  violence  and  blood,  are  rapidly 
loosing  their  hold  on  human  admiration,  A  Havelock  must  be 
robed  in  the  white  folds  of  Christianity,  as  viewed  from  one 
standpoint,  to  get  general  admiration  for  his  character;  while 
his  very  profession  was  that  of  one  well  qualified  to  inflict 
evil,  spread  desolation  and  destroy  human  life.  The  very 
incongruity,  like  that  of  another  distinguished  commander, 
who  required  a  city  under  martial  law,  to  observe  the  fore- 
noon of  the  Lord's  day,  shows  progress.  Most  of  the  world's 
heroes  were  prodigies  of  brutality  and  crime.  Others  pos- 
sessed native  and  inherent  nobleness,  which  would  have  made 
them  blessings  to  their  age  and  ornaments  to  the  human  race, 
had  their  energies  by  a  proper  education  been  turned  iu  the 
right  direction.  Great  minds  must  have  some  object  on  which 
to  concentrate  their  energies,  and  if  one  worthy  of  their  pow- 
ers be  not  presented  or  sought,  one  of  evil  will  necessarily 
be  found  and  embraced.  Had  Alexander  or  Bonaparte  lived 
in  diflFerent  ages,  or  been  educated  so  as  to  see  and  appreciate 
real  greatness,  they  had  stood  as  high  among  the  world's 
benefactors  as  they  do  amid  its  scourges ;  while  Paul  without 
liis  piety  might  have  run  the  career  of  Alexander,  and  v/ept 
for  another  world  to  conquer. 

But  the  world  is  changing,  all  boys  are  not  now  encouraged 
and  educated  to  first  glow  over  the  siege  of  Troy — the  con- 
quests of  Alexander,  or  the  campaigns  of  Napoleon.  Some 
get  their  first  and  generally  lasting  views  of  the  true  ends  of 
life  from  the  benevolence  of  a  Howard,  the  piety  of  a  Payson, 
the  self-sacrifice  of  a  Henry  Martyn  or  the  consecration  of  a 
Judson,  a  Moffat,  a  Livingston  or  a  G-eorge  Thompson.  To 
multiply  such  characters,  we  need  the  numerous  biographies 
o 


10  INTRODUCTION. 

of  those  who  acted  on  their  principles,  and  walked  in  their 
footsteps. 

The  best  subjects  for  such  books  (other  things  being  equal) 
are  those  who  lately  left  the  world.  AVith  the  good  of  ancient 
ages  we  hold  but  imperfect  communion.  They  seem  to  us 
more  like  angels  than  tempted,  tried,  feeling,  suffering  human 
beings,  living  and  acting  like  ourselves.  Few  biographies  are 
much  read  in  after  ages.  A  few  like  Paul,  Luther  or  Howard 
become  immortal.  The  majority  fade  way  in  a  few  ages  and 
their  memory  is  lost.  Often  important  principles  are  esteemed 
and  cherished,  long  after  the  persons  who  contended  for  their 
value  and  secured  their  adoption,  are  covered  with  oblivious 
veil.  But  the  published  lives  of  such  are  not  wasted  labor. 
They  become  an  appendix  to  their  existence,  and  carry  on 
and  finish  their  work  Should  this  humble  volume  share  the 
common  fate,  the  writer  and  compiler  will  still  feel  that  his 
labor  has  not  been  in  vain.  Yet  as  the  work  will  consist 
chiefly  of  the  writings  of  the  deceased;  as  these  subjects  are 
various,  some  of  them  lasting  in  their  nature,  and  the  writer's 
clear  views  on  others  were  greatly  in  advance  of  the  age,  it  is 
hoped  they  may  present  a  legacy  of  thought  to  the  coming 
generation. 

Mr.  Gordon  was  a  varied  and  copious  writer.  His  constant 
changes  of  employment  of  course  rendered  his  articles  mis- 
cellaneous. His  ministerial  life  was  only  about  twelve  years 
in  length.  His  editorial  career  ran  over  seven  years,  but  the 
time  of  actual  employment  was  only  six.  The  last  year  his 
health  failed  so  much,  that  his  mind  was  somewhat  enfeebled 
with  his  body.  Of  this  he  was  himself  fully  sensible,  and 
mentioned  it  in  a  letter  to  a  friend.  When  we  add  to  this 
his  labors  as  a  minister,  his  work  in  the  printing-oflice,  with 
the  cares  and  anxieties  incident  to  an  establishment  meagerly 
supported  by  a  small  subscription  list,  and  yet  which  required 
to  be  so  managed  as  not  to  sink  him  into  debts  beyond  his 
means;  it  seems  wonderful  that  he  could  write  weekly  edito- 
rials of  any  merit  or  power.     Had  his  leisure  permitted  it, 


INTRODUCTION.  11 

and  his  powers  been  concentrated  on  one  or  a  few  leading  top- 
ics, no  one  can  doubt  that  his  success  would  have  been  bril. 
iant  in  proportion. 

It  was  remarked  by  a  very  sensible  and  intelligent  reader 
of  the  Free  Presbyterian^  after  his  death,  that  when  he  made 
an  argument  on  any  of  the  great  questions  of  the  day,  or  on 
the  principles  advocated,  other  opposing  editors  never  cop- 
ied it,  or  replied  to  it.  This  statement  was  generally  true. 
Hunker  editors  snarled  at  his  side,  and  barked  on  his  track, 
but  never  faced  him.  This  probably  arose  quite  as  much  from 
their  convictions  of  the  strength  and  correctness  of  the  prin- 
ciples he  advocated,  and  the  weakness  of  their  own,  as  from 
fear  of  him  personally  as  an  opponent.  To  keep  their  people 
from  reading  or  hearing  any  thing  on  the  other  side  of  the 
controversy,  has  been  the  common  policy  of  ministers  and 
editors  who  continue  the  ecclesiastical  fellowship  of  the  slave- 
holder. Even  so  respectable  and  generally  candid  a  j)aper  as 
the  Presbyterian  of  the  West^  with  its  talented  and  titled  edi- 
tor, manifested  the  conviction  that  discretion  was  the  better 
part  of  valor,  as  the  following  editorial  will  show  : 

"No  Response. — Our  readers  will  remember  that  some 
weeks  since  we  proposed  to  discuss  with  the  editor  of  the 
Presbyterian  of  the  West^  the  charge  of  schism  which  he  made 
against  the  Free  Presbyterian  Church,  and  to  publish  two 
columns  of  what  he  might  write  on  the  subject  for  every  one 
he  should  publish  from  us.  To  this  proposal,  as  wc  expected, 
no  response  has  been  made.  Why  is  this?  It  will  not  do 
for  the  editor  to  throw  himself  back  on  his  dignity,  and  pro- 
fess to  regard  us  as  beneath  his  notice.  He  has  already  made 
us  the  subject  of  a  column  of  editorial.  We  have  our  own 
opinion  of  the  reasons  why  the  discussion  is  declined.  If  the 
reader  is  anxious  to  know  on  what  that  opinion  is  based,  he 
will  find  some  light  on  the  subject,  by  referring  to  the  Gospel 
of  John  3d  chapter,  20th  and  21st  verses." 

In  the  selections  made,  the  personal  taste  of  the  writer  and 
compiler  has  alone  been  consulted ;  for  since  the  death  of  Mr. 


12  INTKODUCTION. 

Finney,  many  controversial  articles  were  necessarily  omitted 
on  account  of  their  ephemeral  nature.  At  the  time  of  their 
appearance  they  were  in  many  cases  specially  interesting,  but 
the  circumstances  which  drew  them  out  have  faded  from  the 
public  memory,  and  their  republication  is  therefore  not  desir- 
able. Others  were  written  in  answer  to  articles  from  corres- 
pondents, and  can  not  appear  well  alone.  In  his  editorial 
career,  the  well  written  and  sensible  articles  of  persons  diifer- 
ing  in  sentiment,  were  very  freely  published.  The  censorship 
of  his  columns  was  exercised  with  the  largest  liberality. 

Were  it  possible  for  Mr.  Gordon  himself  to  be  consulted  in 
the  selection  of  his  own  best  articles,  it  were  "  a  consummation 
devoutly  to  be  wished."  But  that  can  not  be.  He  has  gone 
beyond  the  reach  of  praise  or  blame.  From  the  "  irrepressi- 
ble conflict  "  between  truth  and  error,  he  has  passed  away. 
His  trenchant  pen  is  no  longer  wielded,  and  his  earnest  voice 
no  longer  raised  in  vindication  of  the  supremacy  of  God's 
higher  law,  and  the  rights  of  his  down-trodden  poor.  The 
surging  world  sweeps  on  in  its  course  over  his  lowly  grave, 
unconscious  of  the  good  he  labored  in  life  and  death  to  be- 
queath it.  As  he  remained  faithful  unto  death,  and  fell  in 
his  armor;  may  his  mantle  fall  on  us  who  survive  him,  and 
may  we  transmit  the  victory,  rather  than  the  conflict,  to  those 
who  come  after  us. 


JSIEMOIR. 


Joseph  Gordon  was  born  near  Washington,  Penn.,  on  the 
28th  of  September,  1819.  His  parents  occupied  the  middle 
walks  of  life,  and  his  childhood  and  youth  were  spent  amid 
the  labors  of  a  farm.  He  was  one  of  the  younger  children  of 
a  moderately  large  family.  Nothing  very  peculiar  marked 
his  early  years.  His  habits  were  quiet,  retiring  and  unobtru- 
sive. From  childhood  he  manifested  a  kind  of  careless  inde- 
pendence— generally  formed  his  own  opinions,  and  seemed 
neither  to  seek  those  of  others,  nor  to  be  over-anxious  for  the 
adoption  of  his  own. 

His  intellectual  powers  were  bright  and  vigorous — a  good 
deal  above  mediocrity.  The  first  rudiments  of  his  edu- 
cation were  obtained  in  the  common  schools  of  the  neighbor- 
hood. In  1836  he  became  a  student  of  Washington  College, 
remained  four  years  in  its  classic  halls,  and  graduated  in 
1840.  While  pursuing  his  course  as  a  student,  he  exhibited 
the  same  quiet,  unobtrusive  disposition  which  characterized 
his  whole  life.  He  was  punctual  in  his  recitations — had  the 
general  approbation  of  his  teachers — never  complained  of  the 
burden  of  his  professor's  demands — met  their  requirements 
alike  without  a  complaint  of  their  severity,  or  a  boast  of  the 
amount  of  his  achievements.  At  this  point  we  insert  an 
article  published  after  his  death,  in  the  Christian  Leader^ 
from  the  pen  of  his  special  friend  and  classmate.  Rev.  T.  M. 
Finney,  who  has  since  joined  him  in  the  spirit  world.  The 
attachment  and  confidence  of  the  two  friends  was  strong  and 
mutual,  and  such  as  is  seldom  experienced  in  this  selfish  and 
wicked  world.  After  their  acquaintance  they  ran  a  parallel 
course.  They  graduated  in  the  same  class — both  became 
Presbyterian  ministers — both  left  the  church  in  which  they 
were  born,  educated  and  licensed,  on  account  of  its  complicity 
with  American  slavery — both  united  with  the  Free  Church — 
and  both  were  cut  down  in  the  prime  and  vigor  of  manhood, 
and  in  the  midst  of  extensive  usefulness.  Like  Saul  and 
Jonathan,   "  they  were  lovely  in  their   lives,   and   in   their 


14  LIFE   AND   WHITINGS   OF 

deaths  they  were  not  long  divided."  Mr.  Finney  survived 
his  friend  but  a  little  over  one  year.  The  article  is  copied 
from  the  Leader,  April  2d,  1858  : 

The  death  of  this  faithful  servant  of  God  has  been  already 
noticed  in  the  Leader,  very  appropriately,  both  by  the  editor 
and  a  correspondent.  This  might  seem  sufficient ;  but  friend- 
ship claims  the  mournful  privilege  of  placing  another  humble 
tribute  to  his  memory,  upon  his  new  made  grave.  Twenty- 
two  years  ago,  the  writer  became  acquainted  with  Brother 
Gordon,  at  Washington,  Penn.,  where  we  entered  and  passed 
through  college  together.  During  this  time  a  friendship  was 
formed,  which  has  never  been  interrupted.  There  are  very 
many  personal  reminiscences,  which  it  would  be  pleasant  to 
record  ;  but  for  the  present  I  must  pass  them  by,  to  present  a 
few  of  the  leading  incidents  in  the  brief  life  that  has  closed. 

During  his  college  course  Bro.  G.  was  studious,  but  not 
what  is  usually  termed  "  a  hard  student."  He  needed  and 
took  a  great  deal  of  exercise.  But  he  never  came  to  his  class 
unprepared.  He  acquired  knowledge  easily,  and  mastered  in 
an  hour,  what  many  others  would  labor  upon  for  half  a  day. 
He  graduated  in  1840,  and  in  most  respects  was  the  best 
scholar  in  the  class.  He  took  a  part  of  the  first  honor.  It 
was  perhaps  about  two  years  before  he  ended  his  college 
course  that  he  made  a  profession  of  religion,  and  united  with 
the  Presb3''terian  church  of  Washington,  Penn.  Before  this 
he  had  thoughts  of  turning  his  attention  to  the  Bar,  In  this 
profession  he  would  at  once  have  taken  a  prominent  position. 
But  God  had  other  work  for  him  to  do.  In  the  fall  of  1841, 
he  went  to  the  Theological  Seminary  at  Allegheny  city,  where 
he  continued  until  he  was  prepared  to  be  licensed  as  a  minister 
of  the  gospel.  After  his  licensure  he  supplied  for  a  time  the 
Presbyterian  church  of  Ashland,  Ohio.  During  ths  time  and 
while  he  was  a  student  at  Allegheny,  he  and  the  writer  corres- 
ponded with  regard  to  the  sin  of  slavery  in  the  church  and 
our  duty  in  reference  to  it,  and  at  one  time  concluded  to  start 
a  religious  newspaper,  vindicating  the  doctrine  held  by  the 
Free  Church  on  that  subject.  Not  meeting  with  sufficient 
encouragement,  and  not  having  sufficient  funds  to  commence 
the  enterprise,  it  was  abandoned. 

In  Nov.  1844,  Bro.  G.  removed  to  New  Philadelphia,  Ohio, 
where  the  writer  had  settled  as  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian 
church,  and  we  commenced  teaching  an  academy  together, 
which  we  continued  one  year,  and  then  gave  it  into  other 
hands.      During  this  year  Bro.  G.  supplied  the  church  of 


IIEV.    .lOSEPir    GOKDON.  15 

Urichsville.  During  this  year  also,  he  was  married  to  Miss 
Sarah  A.  Rohertson  of  New  York.  During  the  summer  of 
the  next  year  he  was  elected  professor  of  mathematics  in 
Franklin  College,  and  in  the  autumn  removed  to  New  Athens. 
Here  he  continued  about  five  years,  discharging  with  great 
fidelity,  and  ability,  the  duties  of  his  ofl&ce.  He  also  preach- 
ed to  the  church  of  New  Athens.  Meanwhile  the  General 
Assembly  had  met  at  Cincinnati  and  passed  the  pro-slavery 
action  of  1845.  That  action  which  has  caused  so  many  to 
mourn  over  the  degeneracy  of  the  church  and  assisted  to  such 
a  fearful  extent  in  strengthening  the  hands  of  the  slavehold- 
ers, and  paralyzing  the  efforts  of  anti-slavery  ministers,  and 
members  of  the  church.  Bro.  Gr.  bore  a  faithful  testimony 
against  this  action,  and  the  position  of  the  church  upon  the 
subject  of  slavery.  He  was  not  yet  ordained,  and  the  vigilant 
eyes  of  the  defenders  and  apologists  of  slavery  were  upon  him. 

The  church  of  New  Athens  gave  him  a  call  to  become  its 
pastor,  and  the  Presbytery  of  St.  Clairsville  set  a  time  for  his 
ordination.  He  passe:!  with  approval  through  all  his  parts  of 
trial,  and  just  at  the  moment  when  the  ordination  services 
were  about  to  commence,  a  member  rose  and  objected  to  fur- 
ther proceedings  in  the  case  on  account  of  Bro.  Gr's  senti- 
ments in  reference  to  the  action  of  the  General  Assembly  on 
the  subject  of  slavery.  The  whole  thing  as  it  afterward 
appeared,  had  been  preconcerted.  This  was  the  signal  for 
unchaining  the  whole  pro-slavery  pack.  It  is  said  by  those 
who  heard  it,  that  Bro.  G's  defense  was  manly,  eloquent,  and 
unanswerable.  There  was  no  crouching  fear,  no  retraction  of 
truth,  no  apology  for  having  uttered  the  honest  sentiments  of 
hi:  heart,  in  reference  to  the  iniquitous  position  that  "  domes- 
tic slavery  under  the  circumstances  in  which  it  is  found  in  the 
southern  portion  of  our  country  is  no  bar  to  Christian  commun- 
ion." Of  course  the  Presbytery  attempted  to  silence  him. 
The  church  however  stood  by  him,  and  he  was  shortly  after- 
ward ordained  by  the  Presbytery  of  Ripley,  which  had  left 
the  New  School  body  on  account  of  its  position  on  slavery. 

Bro.  G.  joined  with  Bros.  Bradford  and  McClain  (who  as 
pioneers  in  the  Free  Church  movement  in  Western  Penn- 
sylvania had  declined  the  jurisdiction  of  their  Presbytery,  on 
the  same  ground),  formed  the  Free  Presbytery  of  Mahoning, 
and  this  Presbytery  uniting  with  that  of  Ripley  formed  the 
Synod  of  the  Free  Church.  This  was  in  Nov.  1847.  Bro. 
G.  continued  at  New  Athens,  and  preaching  in  the  church  till 
(I  think)  near  the  close  of  1848,  when  his  health  failing  he 


16  LIFE   AND   WPJTINUS    OF 

was  obliged  to  resign.  The  fatal  disease  which  finally  brought 
him  to  the  grave,  was  already  at  work. 

Meeting  him  soon  after  in  Washington,  Penn.,  the  writer 
proposed  to  him  the  idea  of  starting  a  weekly  religious  news- 
paper, in  connection  with  the  Free  Church  movement,  and  of 
his  becoming  its  editor.  After  serious  and  prayerful  delibera- 
tion, he  consented  that  the  subject  might  be  proposed  to  the 
Mahoning  Presbytery,  then  to  meet  in  a  few  days  at  Mt  Jack- 
son in  Mercer  Co,  Penn.  This  was  done,  and  all  the  members 
seemed  to  recognize  in  this  arrangement  the  hand  of  God.  It 
was  resolved,  that  with  the  concurrence  of  the  brethren  in 
Southern  Ohio,  we  would  start  a  weekly  journal  at  Mercer, 
Penn.,  to  be  published  by  W.  F.  Clark  and  edited  by  Bro.  Gr. 
This  arrangement  was  made.  Bro.  G.  went  to  Mercer,  and 
commenced  the  publication  of  the  Free  Presbyterian^  in  the 
summer  of  1850.  The  paper,  on  account  of  the  position  it 
occupied,  had  necessarily  a  limited  circulation  ;  but  one  suffi- 
cient for  its  maintenance.  Its  list  was  slowly,  but  steadily 
increasing,  when  after  two  years  it  was  thought  best  to  unite  it 
with  the  Christian  Press,  an  anti-slavery  religious  paper, 
published  at  Cincinnati.  According  to  this  plan  Bro.  G.  went 
to  Cleveland,  where  it  was  proposed  to  have  one  branch  of  the 
publishing  office.  Owing  to  causes  which  I  need  not  mention, 
but  over  which  he  had  no  control,  the  experiment  was  a  fail- 
ure, and  it  was  resolved  to  resume  the  publication  of  the  Free 
Preshyterian.  Inducements  were  held  out  to  the  Synod,  to 
publish  at  New  Albany,  Athens  Co.,  and  the  press  was  remov- 
ed thither,  and  was  conducted  by  Bros.  Gordon  and  Kephart 
as  editors. 

Before  this  Bro.  G.  had  been  a  number  of  times  very  near 
the  grave  by  a  severe  hemorrhage  of  the  lungs.  Still  he 
labored  patiently  and  perseveringly  on,  always  seeming  con- 
scious that  his  time  to  work  would  soon  be  ended.  This  loca- 
tion was  unsuitable,  especially  on  account  of  its  want  of  proper 
mailing  facilities,  and  the  press  was  removed  to  Y'ellow  Springs, 
Green  Co.,  where  Bro.  G.  again  became  sole  editor,  it  not  being 
found  practicable  for  Bro.  Kephart  to  leave  his  other  engage- 
ments, and  go  with  him.     Plere  he  continued  till  last  autumn. 

During  his  stay  at  Yellow  Springs,  his  labors  were  very 
severe.  Often,  with  his  poor  health,  he  labored  far  into  the 
night;  till  at  last  the  feeble  frame  would  bear  no  more  press- 
ure and  sunk  beneath  it.  Many  of  those  who  read  weekly  with 
delight,  the  soul -stirring  words  he  wrote,  did  not  know  that  the 
hand  that  penned  them  was  becoming  more  and  more  feeble — 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  17 

did  not  see  the  pale  brow  that  was  bending  over  the  midnight 
lamp — did  not  realize  that  the  glorious  intellect  that  shone  so 
bright  and  clear,  was  so  fast  ripening  for  heaven  !  But  those 
of  us  who  knew  him  best,  knew  that  he  was  dying.  Alas! 
that  the  good  and  gifted,  so  soon  should  leave  us. 

In  October,  he  removed  with  his  family  to  his  native  home, 
near  Washington,  Penn.  He  went  back  only  to  die  ;  and  on 
Sabbath  morning  the  28th  Feb,  he  calmly  fell  asleep  in  Jesus. 
The  closing  scene  has  been  feelingly  described  by  another, 
and  we  shall  not  dwell  upon  it.  He  sleeps  under  one  of  the 
old,  familiar  trees,  that  he  loved  so  well  in  childhood.  There 
let  him  rest  in  peace  till  the  resurrection  of  the  just. 

As  a  ChrisHaa  Bro.  G.  was  consistent,  faithful  and  humble. 
His  religion  was  that  of  principle.  He  knew  no  compromise 
with  sin,  and  never  sought  popularity  by  betraying  truth.  As 
an  editor,  he  was  able  and  independent.  His  mind  was  of  the 
first  order.  He  thought  deeply  and  expressed  himself  clearly. 
In  argument  he  had  but  few  equals.  He  wrote  with  great  facil- 
ity, and  the  subject  that  was  clear  to  his  own  mind,  he  could 
always  make  clear  to  others.  There  was  a  clearness  and  direct- 
ness about  his  style,  which  was  admirable.  He  had  no  honied 
words  for  sin,  but  always  called  it  by  its  right  name.  He  plead 
for  pure  religion,  and  longed  to  see  Christians  coming  out  from 
their  connection  with  the  sins  of  the  world.  He  plead  the 
cause  of  the  poor,  and  enslaved,  and  on  his  dying  bed  claimed 
the  sweet  promise  of  God  in  the  41st  Psalm.  Oppressors, 
time-servers  and  trimmers,  hated  him  of  course.  And  although 
they  said  "  all  manner  of  evil  against  him,"  his  death-bed  con- 
firmed his  upright  course,  and  in  near  view  of  eternity  he 
declared  that  he  felt  the  position  he  had  taken  in  the  church 
to  be  right  and  good.  He  made  a  most  interesting  paper,  for 
all  who  love  to  think  and  act  aright.  Eternity  alone  will 
develop  the  greatness  of  the  work  he  has  performed. 

As  a  speaker,  he  was  calm,  collected,  clear  and  often  impas- 
sioned and  eloquent.  His  language  was  always  concise  and 
pure,  and  he  carried  conviction  to  the  hearts  of  his  hearers  by 
an  irresistible  aplication  of  trutli. 

As  a  friend,  he  was  generous,  frank  and  cheerful.  His 
conduct  was  never  fickle  or  wayward.  The  warm  grasp  and 
kindling  eye,  always  told  the  pleasure  he  felt  in  meeting  with 
acquaintances  and  friends.  And  now  as  I  write,  memory  is 
busy  with  the  past.  He  my  friend.  Through  long  years  of 
trial  he  had  always  been  the  same.  I  have  loved  him  as  a 
brother,  and  now  feel  a  loneliness  even  in  the  midst  of  busy  life. 


18  LIFE    AKI»    WKITIInGS   OV 

Yet  I  can  rejoice  that  he  is  liappy.  I  know  that  he  is  with 
the  blood-washed  company.  The  feeble  body  shall  know  no 
more  trial  and  weariness — the  overwrought  mind  no  more 
anxiety  and  care.  "  Blessed  are  the  dead  who  die  in  the  Lord 
— they  rest  from  their  labors."  He  has  gone  "  to  be  with 
Christ,  which  is  far  better."  He  has  met  again  his  little  ones — 
the  stricken  lambs  of  his  flock,  the  "Good  Shepherd,"  has 
taken  to  the  fold  above.  May  they  who  yet  remain,  his  com- 
panion and  his  son,  be  prepared  to  meet  them,  and  be  an 
unbroken  family  in  heaven. 

Friends  of  my  youth  farewell ! 

Life's  changing  day  of  sin  and  toil  is  past, 
And  from  the  gathering  swell 

Of  earth's  rude  tempests  thou  art  safe  at  last. 

Past  are  these  scenes  of  care, 

The  appointed  nights  of  weariness  are  o'er. 

No  pain  can  reach  thee  there, 

In  the  bright  mansions  of  that  summer  shore. 

Brother  I  miss  thee  here, 

A  shadow  falls  upon  life's  gloomy  way, 
But  in  thy  brighter  sphere 

The  eye  of  faith  beholds  unclouded  day. 

Rest  for  i\i(i  weary,  rest!  — 

Take  back  0  native  earth  thy  toilworn  son, 
And  on  thy  peaceful  breast 

Pillow  the  aching  head  whose  task  is  done. 


T.  M.  F. 


LINES  ON  THE  DEATH  OF  PvEV.  J.  GORDON. 

Dead!  in  the  manhood's  golden  i^rime, 

Ere  life  reached  its  zenith  hour. 
Ere  long  dark  years  of  time  had  dimmed 
Thy  spirit's  power. 

Yet  in  that  life  so  quickly  o'er, 

Rich  triumphs  have  been  won; 
The  work  thy  father  bad'st  thee  do 
Was  noblj'-  done. 

Hushed  now  the  pr.ayer  that  thou  might'st  live 

To  battle  'gainst  the  tide  of  wrong 
That  now  seems  darkening  o'er  our  land, 
Swift  rushing  on. 

We  only  aslc,  the  seed  thou'st  sown 

Of  earnest  thought,  and  purpose  high, 
Of  kindly  word,  and  noble  deed, 
jSIay  never  die. 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  19 

"We  look  abroad,  for  one  like  thee, 
Mighty  in  word,  in  spirit  brave, 
But  seek  in  vain;  sadly  our  hearts 

Turn  to  thy  grave. 

Mourn  Africs  sons !  from  slavery's  curse 

Fair  Freedom's  soil  he  strove  to  save ; 
To  right  thy  burning  wrongs,  his  life 
An  offering  gave. 

Thy  Leader's  fallen;  Zion  mourn! 
'Twas  'purity  he  sought  for  thee, 
A  fitting  Bride  for  "  Christ  thy  head," 
That  thou  might'st  be. 

Best,  weary  one,  we  would  not  break 

Thy  quiet  slumber,  calm  and  deep, 
That  sleep  "God  giveth  His  beloved," 
Calm,  peaceful  sleep. 

The  rest  for  which  thy  spirit  longed, 

Where  all  the  strife  of  earth  is  o'er, 
Where  blight  of  sorrow  and  stain  of  sin 
Comes  never  more. 

Great  was  thy  work  !  great  thy  reward  I 
A  radiant  crown  thou  now  dost  wear: 
"An  eternal  weight  of  glory  now 

Thou'st  strength  to  bear." 

Dost  see  thy  Father  face  to  face, 

And  in  his  unveiled  presence  stand. 
While  thy  song  of  rapture  swells  among 
The  angel  band. 

We'd  hush  our  murmuring  hearts  and  say  • 

'Tis  well,  "Thy  will,  0  God,  be  done." 
We  thank  thee  that  our  strength  comes  not 
From  man  alone. 
Albany,  Ohio.  M. 

In  addition  to  the  above,  a  few  things  demand  a  fuller 
notice.  He  was  licensed  by  the  Presbytery  of  Washington 
in  1843.  While  he  was  a  student  of  the  theological  semin- 
ary, some  of  his  utterances  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  and 
especially  on  one  occasion,  a  truthful,  but  severe  animadver- 
sion, on  the  criminal  silence  of  the  ministers  and  D.  D's  of 
the  church,  gave  special  oflfense.  An  unsuccessful  effort  first 
to  flatter,  and  then  to  gag  him  into  silence,  was  made  by  an 
aged  professor  of  theology  (P.).  He  was  licensed  by  the 
Presbytery  of  Washington  in  the  spring  of  1843.  After  his 
licensure,  he  labored   a  short  time  in  Ashland,  Ohio — a  few 


20  LIFE    AND    WKITraGS    OF 

months  in  Claysville,  Pennsylvania,  and  about  a  year  in 
Urichsville,  Ohio,  while  he  was  teaching  in  New  Philadelphia. 
In  May,  1845,  the  General  Assembly  of  the  0.  S.  Presby- 
terian church,  passed  the  Rubicon  in  her  downward  march 
from  the  bights  of  ecclesiastical  liberty,  into  the  territories 
of  despotism.  Once,  in  common  with  other  branches  of  the 
Presbyterian  fsimily,  she  bore  a  strong  and  truthful  testi- 
mony against  slaveholding.  The  Assembly  of  1794  declared 
the  slaveholder  identical  with  the  man -thief — the  worst  crim- 
inal designated  in  the  Mosaic  law.  That  of  1818  pronounced 
it  utterly  inconsistent  with  the  law  of  God,  and  totally  irre- 
concilable with  the  gospel  of  Christ.  But  during  all  this 
time  the  man-thief  was  permitted  to  preach  the  gospel  and 
commune  in  the  church,  under  the  delusive  hope  that  a  paper 
testimony  from  the  highest  church  courts  would  work  a  silent 
destruction  of  the  sin.  Instead,  however,  of  dying  out,  it 
steadily  grew,  struck  its  roots  deeply  around  the  pulpit,  the 
altar,  and  the  communion  table  ;  and  this  year  it  felt  strong 
enough  to  throw  off  the  mask,  and  claim  that  the  Assembly 
was  originally  organized,  on  the  conceded  principle  that  its 
existence  should  be  "  no  bar  to  Christian  communion." 

In  common  with  many  others,  Mr.  G.  was  greatly  exercised, 
and  deeply  grieved  with  this  apostate  action.  In  July  fol- 
lowing, he  was  invited  to  attend  a  convention  of  ministers 
and  elders  at  Mt.  Pleasant,  whose  object  was  to  try  to  induce 
the  Assembly  of  1846  to  rescind  the  action  of  that  of  1845, 
and  re-affirm  that  of  1818,  which  had  been  the  standing  tes- 
timony of  the  church  during  twenty-seven  years.  The  invita- 
tion found  him  prostrated  on  a  bed  of  sickness;  yet  he 
responded  by  letter.  He  always  wrote  with  a  trenchant  pen, 
and  now  disease  probably  added  to  its  point.  As  this  letter  was 
made  the  subject  of  flagrantly  unconstitutional  action,  and 
the  occasion  of  bitter  and  relentless  persecution  afterward, 
we  here  insert  it  entire  : 

New  Philadelphia,  July  23,  1845. 

Dear  Brethren:  A  severe  and  dangerous  attack  of  sick- 
ness, under  which  I  was  suffering  at  the  time  your  letter  was 
received,  prevented  an  immediate  reply  ;  and  now  the  feeble- 
ness incident  to  but  a  partial  recovery,  will  preclude  a  labored 
answer. 

Most  gladly  would  I  mingle  with  you  in  your  proposed 
convention,  but  the  state  of  my  health,  and  nature  of  my 
engagements,  forbid  the  expectation. 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  21 

WitTi  the  prominent  object  of  the  meeting  you  invite  me 
to  attend,  I  deeply  sympathize — "to  induce  the  General  As- 
sembly to  rescind  their  late  action  on  the  subject  of  slavery." 
The  emotions  excited  in  my  mind  by  perusing  that  action, 
have  alternated  between  bitter  grief  and  burning  indignation. 
The  moral  character  of  slavery^  I  have  ceased  to  regard  as  an 
open  question.  I  no  longer  admit  it  as  a  debatable  pointy 
whether  slavery  be  a  sin.  The  united  voice  of  the  civilized 
icorld — the  innate  consciousness  of  every  human  heart — and 
the  plain  teachings  of  the  word  of  God — have  all  combined  to 
settle  the  question.  Common  sense  alone  is  sufficient  in 
its   plain   teachings. 

With  these  views,  I  looked  with  anxious  solicitude  to  our 
highest  court,  hoping  to  see  them  arrange  themselves  on  the 
side  of  truth  and  Jehovah — hoping  to  hear  the  strong  voice 
of  affectionate,  but  stern  rebuke  to  those  who  "  deal  in  slaves 
and  souls  of  men." 

To  blast  these  fond  anticipations,  came  the  blasphemous 
(the  word  is  not  too  strong)  report  of  the  reverend  commit- 
tee, to  which  was  committed  the  anti-slavery  memorials  of 
large  and  respectable  numbers  in  the  church  ;  a  report  in 
which  Christ  and  his  Apostles  are  ruthlessly  pressed  into  the 
service  of  "  the  vilest  system  of  oppression  that  ever  saw  the 
sun."  which  is  made  up  of  a  tissue  of  contradictions — in  one 
breath  pronouncing  slavery  the  favorite  institution  of  Jesus 
and  his  Apostles,  and  in  the  next,  promulgating  in  the  ear  of 
the  master  as  his  rule  of  conduct,  the  broad  principle  of 
doing  to  others  as  they  would  have  others  do  to  them — which 
is  destined  to  sweep  the  system  of  abominations  from  the 
earth  ;  a  report,  which,  in  connection  with  the  subsequent 
action  of  the  Assembly,  trampled  on  the  right  of  free  dis- 
cussion, and  manifested  a  reckless  determination  on  the  part 
of  the  majority,  to  earn  the  title  of  "  brotherhood  of  thieves," 
and  "  wear  it  as  a  feather  in  their  cap." 

Is  this  language  too  strong?  Look  for  a  moment  at  the 
nature  of  the  case.  Slavery  is  either  right  or  lorong — either 
a  holy  institution  approved  of  God  and  pleasing  in  his  sight, 
or  a  system  of  crime  and  blood,  over  -which  the  Almighty 
frowns,  and  over  which  the  Saviour  weeps.  A  system  so  de- 
cided in  its  character  and  effects,  precludes  the  idea  of  neu- 
trality in  its  moral  nature.  If  then  it  be  a  holy  institution, 
as  the  drift  of  the  report  would  make  it,  why  in  the  name 
of  all  that  is  manly,  this  driveling  policy  of  seeking  to 
justify  it,  and  yet  not  wishing  to  be  understood  as   denying 


22  LIFE   AIS'D   WRITINGS   OP 

that  there  is  evil  connected  with  it?  If  it  be  a  holy  institu- 
tion, let  them  proclaim  itboldly,  and  call  upon  its  opposers 
to  cease  their  wicked  efforts  ;  and  should  they  refuse  to  do  so, 
proceed  to  discipline  and  expel  them  from  the  church  for 
seeking  to  contravene  a  Heaven-ordained  institution,  appoint- 
ed by  God  himself,  and  baptized  in  the  name  of  Father,  Son, 
and  Spirit,  by  Christ  and  his  disciples. 

But  if  on  the  other  hand  slavery  be,  as  it  surely  is,  the 
"sum  of  all  villainies  " — "a  gross  violation  of  the  most  pre- 
cious and  sacred  rights  of  human  nature,  utterly  inconsistent 
with  the  law  of  God,  which  requires  us  to  love  our  neighbors 
as  we  love  ourselves — and  totally  irreconcilable  with  the 
spirit  and  principles  of  the  gospel  of  Christ ;  "  if  such  be  the 
character  of  slavery,  then  no  language  is  too  strong  in  speak- 
ing of  those  who,  while  claiming  loudly  to  bo  the  ministers 
of  the  merciful  Jesus,  lend  all  their  energies  to  uphold  the 
vile  abomination.  Is  slavery  then  the  monster  which  the 
good  and  great  of  all  ages  and  our  own  Assembly  in  years 
past  declare  it  to  be?  As  I  have  said,  I  shall  not  reason 
fhc/t  question.  Bring  but  one  of  its  many  constituent  parts 
to  bear  on  these  reverend  divines,  and  you  shall  hear  a 
difierent  response  from  their  recorded  action  in  the  Assem- 
bly of  1845.  Place  one  of  them  in  the  hands  of  a  master 
possessing  but  one  of  the  slaveholders'  prerogatives — the 
power  to  separate  him  from  wife  and  children — to  compel 
him  to  toil  without  reward  in  the  burning  southern  sun — 
the  right  to  sell  him  to  the  most  cruel  tyrant — or  the  pow- 
er to  forbid  him  reading  the  word  of  God — and  you  would 
hear  from  that  holy  man  no  declaration  that  to  "  pronounce 
slavery  a  sin,  would  be  to  contradict  some  of  the  plainest 
declarations  of  the  word  of  God."  And  yet  not  one,  but  all 
of  these  elements,  and  more,  enter  into  the  composition  of 
slavery.  And  yet  these  holy  men  can  say  that  Christ  and  his 
inspired  followers  did  not  condemn  the  system  ! ! 

"  How  long,  oh  Lord  !  how  long- 
Shall  such  a  priesthood  baiter  truth  away  ! 

And  in  thy  name,  for  robbery  and  icrong, 
At  thine  own  altars  pray !  " 

The  time  and  circumstances  in  which  the  General  Assembly 
of  our  church  have  taken  this  impious  stand,  gives  to  their 
position  a  painful  singularity.  While  the  civilized,  and  even 
many  parts  of  the  savage  world,  are  combining  in  one  grand 
effort  to  crush  the  blood-stained  monster;  while  almost  all 
other  branches  of  the  Christian   Church  are  uttering  their 


EEV.    JOSEPH   G0KD02S.  23 

testimony  against  it;  while  just  across  the  river,  where  the 
Assembly  sat,  the  voice  of  a  former  slaveholder — reared  under 
the  influence  of  the  system — a  politician  making  no  claim  to 
the  Christian  character,  is  pouring  his  denunciation  in  words 
of  burning  eloquence,  and  calling,  in  language  to  which  the 
heart  leaps  as  to  the  blast  of  the  trumpet,  upon  all  to  marshal 
to  the  death  struggle  with  the  demon  of  oppression,  men 
claiming  to  be  chosen  ministers  of  Him  who  came  "to  pro- 
claim liberty  to  the  captive,"  are  seen  rushing  to  plant  their 
shoulders  in  support  of  the  tottering  Bastile,  as  it  reels  be- 
neath the  sturdy  blows  that  fall  thick  and  fast  upon  it.  Over 
such  a  scene,  surely  Jesus  and  angels  must  weep;  and  that 
such  a  state  of  things  may  soon  cease  to  disgrace  our  beloved 
church,  will  surely  call  forth  the  prayers  of  all  that  love  the 
truth.  In  all  consistent  and  energetic  action  to  secure  the 
great  object  of  the  coming  convention,  you  have  my  most 
hearty  sympathy ;  and  to  the  extent  of  my  feeble  powers,  my 
earnest  co-operation.  May  God  speed  the  day  of  the  slave's 
deliverance;  and  permit  -us  to  live  to  join  our  voices  in  the 
jubilee  shout,  w4ien  "  Liberty  shall  be  proclaimed  throughout 
all  the  land,  unto  all  the  inhabitants  thereof." 

Yours,  for  Truth  and  Freedom, 

JOS.  GORDON. 
■  Mr.  McCullough,  and  others. 

This  letter,  in  connection  with  those  of  several  others,  was 
published  in  the  Liberty  Advocate  of  Cadiz,  Ohio.  In  the 
following  October  he  was  invited  to  the  church  of  New 
Athens,  and  elected  Professor  of  Mathematics  in  Franklin 
College.  Previous  to  this  he  had  taken  a  letter  of  dismission 
from  the  Presbytery  of  "Washington,  and  put  himself  under 
the  care  of  that  of  Coshocton,  Ohio.  To  that  Presbytery  he 
was  alone  accountable  for  all  the  acts  which  were  done  while 
he  was  under  its  care.  It  was  rather  an  anti-slavery  body, 
and  took  no  official  notice  of  the  published  letter.  After  his 
removal  to  Athens,  he  took  a  letter  of  dismissal  from  the 
Presbytery  of  Coshocton,  and  put  himself  under  the  care  of 
that  of  St.  Clairsville.  That  body,  without  any  open  objec- 
tion, took  him  under  its  care,  and  appointed  him  to  supply 
the  church  of  Athens  a  whole  year,  without  a  hint  that  his 
conduct  in  writing  the  above  letter,  and  permitting  its  pub- 
lication, had  been  offensive.  In  1846,  one  year  afterward, 
the  church  made  out  a  call — the  Presbytery  without  objection 
put  it  into  his  hands — he  signified  his  acceptance — and  they 


24  LIFE    AKD   WRITINGS   OF 

appointed  a  meeting  for  his  ordination.  The  day  came,  and 
the  body  met.  Their  plans  of  operation  were  concealed. 
They  proceeded  with  his  examination,  and  heard  his  trials, 
as  if  nothing  stood  in  the  way  of  his  ordination,  till  they 
were  almost  ready  to  lay  on  hands.  Then  a  member  arose 
and  gave  the  information  (which  every  member  of  the  body 
knew  a  year  and  a  half  before)  that  the  candidate  had  writ- 
ten an  offensive  letter  in  July,  1845,  in  reference  to  the 
action  of  the  General  Assembly.  Pretending  to  receive  this 
as  a  piece  of  new  intelligence,  the  Presbytery  appointed  a 
committee  to  confer  with  the  candidate,  and  endeavor  to 
induce  him  to  retract  the  sentiments  of  the  letter.  To  the 
committee  he  made  what  he  called  "an  explanation."  He 
said  the  letter  was  written  while  he  was  on  a  sick  bed — the 
language  might  not  have  been  well  chosen — and  that  it  was 
not  his  right  to  judge  the  private  motives  of  the  members  of 
the  Assembly  ;  but  that  in  reference  to  the  action  itself,  he 
had  expressed  his  firm  and  matured  convictions,  and  that  he 
could  not,  and  would  not,  retract  them  until  they  convinced 
him  they  were  wrong.  The  explanation  was  pronounced  un- 
satisfactory ;  the  committee  so  reported  to  the  Presbytery, 
and  the  whole  body  spent  a  considerable  time  in  trying  to 
wring  from  him  something  more.  They  put  on  the  gag — 
prohibited  him  from  making  a  public  defense — confined  him 
down  to  simply  answer  their  questions — charged  him  with 
being  "  a  young  man" — "a  mere  tyro" — with  many  other 
phrases  equally  dignified,  and  rendered  deeply  impressive  by 
the  bitterness  and  anger  with  which  they  were  uttered.  All 
this  heat,  and  zeal,  and  rhetoric  he  met  with  the  calm  serenity 
and  self-possession  of  one  who  stood  on  the  principles  of  con- 
scious rectitude.  No  one  attempted  to  convince  him  that  his 
expressed  sentiments  were  wrong,  or  to  grapple  with  him  in 
discussion  of  their  truth  or  falsehood. 

The  Presbytery  evidently  designed  to  spring  the  matter  on 
him  suddenly — frighten  him  into  some  sudden  concessions, 
and  thus  tie  his  hands,  and  gag  his  lips  for  the  future.  This 
was  now  a  failure.  What  could  be  done?  Should  they  give 
him  a  regular  trial,  as  he  demanded  ?  This  would  entitle  him 
to  the  right  of  being  heard  in  defense.  This  they  could  not 
meet.  They  therefore  suddenly  arrested  the  proceedings  and 
adjourned.  This  was  supposed  to  be  done  to  enable  them  to 
form  some  new  plan  for  the  future.  They  had  persistently 
refused  him  a  hearing.  As  soon  as  the  body  adjourned,  he 
requested   the  crowded  congregation  to  remain  ;   and  made  to 


REV.   JOSEPH    GORDON.  25 

them  an  eloquent,  njanly  and  resistless  defense  of  his  course 
and  conduct.  A  few  days  afterward  his  church  met,  and 
passed  resolutions  approvino-  his  course,  and  condemning  that 
of  the  Presbytery.  The  Presbytery,  through  their  stated 
clerk,  published  a  one-sided  statement  of  their  action.  The 
Pre^hyferlan  Advocate — a  paper  that  seldom,  if  ever,  mani- 
fested either  candor,  fairness,  or  love  of  truth,  if  their  oppo- 
sites  seemed  to  better  serve  its  purpose — refused  to  publish 
either  his  reply,  or  the  resolutions  of  the  congregation.  The 
congregation,  however,  had  them  published  in  an  extra  sheet 
at  the  office  of  the  Liberty  Advocate^  in  Cadiz.  These  papers 
we  republish.  Some  of  the  members  of  that  Presbytery  have 
gone  the  way  of  all  fleshy  and  have  passed  themselves  the 
ordeal  of  a  higher  tribunal.  Most  of  them  yet  live,  and  their 
unrepented  acts  make  a  part  of  their  reputation,  and  the  one 
under  consideration  ought  not  to  be  forgotten. 

[From  the  Presbyterian  Advocate.] 

Presbytery   of   St.    Clairsville  —  Case   of   the   Eev. 
Joseph   Gordon. 

The  committee  appointed  by  Presbytery  to  prepare  a  record 
of  the  proceedings  of  Presbytery  in  reference  to  Mr.  Joseph 
.Gordon,  for  publication,  submit  the  following  : 

Mr.  Joseph  Gordon,  a  licentiate  under  the  care  of  the 
Presbytery  of  Coshocton,  was,  by  virtue  of  a  dismission  from 
said  Presbytery,  received  as  a  licentiate  under  the  care  of 
this  Presbytery,  at  its  meeting  in  June,  1846  ;  and  at  the  meet- 
ing of  the  Presbytery,  Oct.,  1846,  there  was  a  call  laid  on  the 
table  of  Presbytery,  for  Mr.  Gordon,  by  the  church  of  New 
Athens,  to  become  their  pastor.  The  call  was  put  into  the 
hands  of  Mr.  Gordon  ;  and  he  having  signified  his  acceptance 
thereof.  Presbytery  adjourned  to  meet  at  New  Athens,  on  the 
1st  Tuesday  of  November  next,  with  a  view  to  ordain  and  in- 
stall him  as  pastor  of  said  church,  provided  the  way  was  open. 
Presbytery  having  met  at  this  time,  pursuant  to  adjournment, 
heard  the  trial  sermon  of  Mr.  Gordon,  from  the  text  previ- 
ously assigned  him;  and  also  examined  him  on  the  Latin, 
Greek,  and  Hebrew  languages,  the  Natural  and  Moral  Sci- 
ences, the  Sacraments  and  Church  Government;  all  of  which 
examinations  were  sustained,  as  satisfactory  parts  of  trial  for 
ordination. 

At  this  stage  of  the  proceedings,  and  wlien  Presbyterj' were 
about  to  have  a  recess,  it  was  intimated  to  Pre.-?bytery  that 


26  LIFE   AND    WRITINGS    OF 

there  had  been  some  letters  written  by  Mr.  Gordon,  and  pub- 
lished in  the  Liherty  Advocate^  in  reference  to  the  General 
Assembly  of  1845  ;  in  which  there  were  improper  and  unbe- 
coming expressions  made  use  of  by  him  in  reference  to  that 
body.     Whereupon  it  was 

JiesoIvcJ,  That  inasmuch  as  it  had  been  represented  to 
Presbytery  that  Mr.  Gordon,  the  candidate  for  ordination,  has 
written  letters,  published  in  the  Liber/7/  Advocate^  in  which 
there  are  expressions  and  sentiments  which  are  slanderous  to 
the  Presbyterian  church  ;  therefore 

Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  three  be  appointed  to  exam- 
ine such  letters,  and  converse  with  Mr.  Gordon  on  the  sub- 
ject, ascertain  whether  a  retraction  of  such  expressions  be  nec- 
essary, and  how  far  Mr.  Gordon  is  willing  to  retract;  and 
report  to  Presbytery  as  soon  as  possible.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Rea, 
Rev.  James  Kerr,  and  Mr.  Thos.  J.  Holliday  were  appointed 
that  committee. 

Presbytery  having  again  met.  it  was  moved  that  the  report 
of  the  committee  of  the  preceding  evening  be  adopted.  The 
report  is  as  follows  : 

The  committee  appointed  to  examine  certain  letters  writ- 
ten by  Mr.  Gordon,  and  to  converse  with  him  on  the  subject, 
report.  That  having  examined  one  of  the  letters,  acknowl- 
edged by  Mr.  Gordon  to  have  been  written  by  him,  they  found 
that  the  following  language,  in  reference  to  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  church,  that  met  at  Cincinnati 
in  1845,  occurs,  viz. :  "  To  blast  these  fond  anticipations,  came 
the  hlasphemous  (the  word  is  not  too  strong)  report  of  the 
reverend  Committee."  Again  :  "A  report  which,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  subsequent  action  of  the  Assembly,  trampled  on 
the  right  of  free  discussion,  and  manifested  a  reckless  deter- 
mination, on  the  part  of  the  majority,  to  earn  the  title  of 
'  brotherhood  of  thieves,'  and  '  wear  it  as  a  feather  in  their 
cap.'  "  Again  :  ''  And  yet  these  holy  men  say  that  Christ  and 
his  inspired  followers  did  not  condemn  the  system." 
"  '  Great  God  of  truth!  how  long 

Shall  such  a  priesthood  barter  truth  away! 
And  in  thy  name,  for  robbery  and  wrong, 
At  thine  own  altar  pray  ?"'  ' 

Again  :  "  The  time  and  eircuiustances  in  which  the  General 
Assembly  of  our  church  have  taken  this  i'^qnons  s/and."  The 
above  are  the  principal  expressions  to  which  the  Committee 
directed  the  attention  of  Mr.  Gordon  ;  and  after  much  con- 
versation with  him  on   the  stibject,  presented  to  him  tlie  fol- 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  27 

lowing    plain   and   simple    questions;    to   which    he    himself 
appended  the  negative  answers,  viz.  : 

1.  Are  you  willing  to  acknowledge  that  the  language  used 
in  your  letter  to  the  Mt.  Pleasant  Convention  is  too  strong? 

A7isice7\ — '•  I  am  willing  to  say  that  I  impugned  no  man's 
motives  ;  but  that  the  language  is  not  too  strong,  if  applied 
to  me,  should  I  with  mi/  views,  do  the  same  thing." 

2d.  Are  you  willing  to  acknowledge  that  the  language  was 
inappropriate,  as  used,  to  that  reverend  body? 

Ans2ce)'. — 5,'  I  would  say  as  above,  that  I  apply  the  language 
to  the  act,  not  the  -nun." 

3d.  Are  you  willing  to  pledge  yourself  that  you  will  refrain 
in  future  from  using  such  language  to  your  brethren  ? 

Answei-. — "  I  would  again  distinguish  between  the  men  and 
the  act.  Toward  the  action  I  hold  the  same  language. 
Against  my  brethren  I  will  in  future  use  no  abusive  or  slan- 
derous language  whatever." 

After  some  discussion  on  the  adoption  of  the  foregoing 
report,  the  following  question  was  presented  to  Mr.  Gordon, 
and  answered  by  him  in  open  Presbytery,  viz. : 

"  Is  Mr.  Gordon  willing  to  say  that  he  regrets  having  writ- 
ten the  letter  in  question?" 

Answer. — "  I  do  not  regret  writing  the  letter,  but  I  regret 
the  construction  that  is  put  upon  it." 

Whereupon,  the  foregoing  report  was  adopted  by  yeas  and 
nays — yeas,  10;  nays,  4;  excused,  1.     And  hence  all  further 
proceedings  in  reference  to  his  ordination  were  suspended. 
Benjamin  Mitchell,  Slated  Clerk. 

Cadiz,  Ohio,  April  22,  1849. 

Mr.  Gordon — Dear  Sir :  I  am  sorry  to  have  to  perform,  as 
Clerk  of  the  Presbytery,  the  duty  which  you  will  perceive  is 
enjoined  in  the  following  extracts  from  the  minutes  : 

Extract  from   the   Minutes  of   the  Presbytery  of   St.   C'lair.'ville,  wet   at 
Morristown,  April  21,  1847. 

"A  communication  was  received  from  the  congregation  of 
New  Athens,  requesting  that  the  action  of  the  previous  meet- 
ing of  Presbytery  in  reference  to  Mr.  Joseph  Gordon  be 
reconsidered,  and  that  he  be  ordained  as  their  pastor;  and 
also  a  letter  from  Mr.  Gordon  himself  on  the  subject, 

"A  motion  was  made  and  recorded  that  the  request  of  the 
congregation  be  granted,  which  motion  was  lost  by  a  unani- 
mous vote. 


28  LIFE  Aisi>  wiirrraos  ov 

"A  motion  "was  ^hen  made  and  recorded  that  Mr.  Gordon 
be  deprived  of  his  license.  After  some  discussion,  it  was 
moved  that  the  subject  be  postponed  till  next  meeting  of 
Presbytery.  This  motion  was  lost.  At  this  stage  of  the  busi- 
ness the  subject  was  committed  to  Messrs.  Rae  and  Kerr  to 
bring  in  a  minute  for  the  adoption  of  Presbytery. 

"  Presbytery  had  a  recess  till  7-i-  o'clock. 

"After  recess,  the  committee  appointed  to  bring  in  a  min- 
ute for  the  adoption  of  Presbytery,  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Gordon, 
presented  the  follov/ing,  viz. : 

"  The  committee  appointed  to  bring  in  a  minute  for  the 
adoption  of  Presbytery,  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Gordon,  present 
the  following,  viz. : 

"  Whereas,  The  congregation  of  New  Athens  have  pre- 
sented a  request  that  Presbytery  should  reconsider  their 
action  at  last  meeting  in  reference  to  the  ordination  of  Mr. 
Gordon,  and  that  he  be  ordained  and  installed  as  their  pastor, 
accompanied  with  a  letter  from  Mr.  Gordon  himself  on  the 
subject;  and,  whereas,  Presbytery  has  now  refused  to  grant 
the  request  of  the  congregation  of  New  Athens  ;  and,  whereas, 
the  letter  of  Mr.  Gordon  contains  no  manifestation  of  a  dis- 
position to  reti-act  any  of  his  offensive  espressions  used  in 
reference  to  the  General  Assembly,  but  rather  a  reiteration 
and  defense  of  said  expressions.  Whereas,  he  has  published 
in  the  Liberty  Advocate,  since  the  last  meeting  of  Presbytery, 
a  lengthened  defense  of  said  expressions,  and  thus  continued 
to  reiterate  instead  of  retracting  the  accusations  against  the 
highest  judicatory  of  our  church,  for  which  Presbytery  ar- 
rested his  ordination  at  its  last  meeting;  and,  whereas,  a  licen- 
tiate is  a  probationer  for  the  work  of  the  ministry,  and  Pres- 
bytery have  now  twice  decided  that  they  can  not  introduce  him 
into  the  full  work  of  the  gospel  ministry,  Mr.  Gordon's  term 
of  probation  ought  now  to  cease.     Therefore, 

'■•Resolved,  That  Mr.  Joseph  Gordon  be  and  he  hereby  is 
deprived  of  his  license  to  preach  the  gospel,  and  that  his  name 
be  stricken  from  our  roll  of  licentiates. 

^^ Resolved,  furihcr,  That  the  letter  of  Mr.  Gordon,  pub- 
lished in  the  Liherlij  Advocate,  o^  Dec.  23, 1S4G,  and  his  letter 
at  the  same  time  to  the  Presbytery,  be  kept  on  file. 

"  The  report  was  accepted,  and  then  the  following  resolution 
was  presented  and  unanimously  adopted,  viz. : 

'■'■Resolved,  That  the  previous  report  be  postponed  for  the 
present,  and  that  when  Presbytery  adjaurns  it  adjourns  to 
meet  at  Wheeling  Valley  on   the  second  Tuesday  of  iMay  at 


REV.   JOSEPH    GORDON.  29 

11  o'clock,  and  that  a  copy  of  the  records  of  this  meeting  in 
his  case  be  sent  to  5Ir.  Gordon,  and  that  he  be  cited  to  attend 
that  meeting,  and  informed  that  in  case  he  does  not  then 
answer  satisfactorily  the  questions  previously  put  to  hira,  that 
then  the  preceding  report  will  be  adopted. 
"  By  order  of  Presbytery. 

"  James  Kerr,  Clerk,". 


[For  the  Liberty  AJvocitc] 

Mr.  Hanna  :  The  following  communication  was  prepared 
for  the  Preshyterian  Advocate ;  but,  (after  publishing  the  re- 
port to  which  it  refers)  the  editor  refused  to  insert  this ;  I, 
therefore,  ask  the  use  of  your  columns  to  lay  it  before  the 
public.  J.  G. 

[Fur  tha  Presliyterian  Advocate.] 

Mr.  Editor  :  As  the  Presbytery  of  St.  Clairsville  have 
given  publicity,  through  your  columns,  to  their  proceeding  in 
reference  to  myself,  at  their  late  meeting  in  New  Athens,  I 
hope  you  will  permit  me  to  present  to  the  public,  through  the 
same  medium,  my  reasons  for  dissenting  from  that  decision. 
Public  acts  0^  puhlic  men  are  jyuhb'c  projjerf.y.  The  humblest 
individual  has  a  perfect  right  to  call  in  question  the  justness 
of  any  decision  of  men  in  the  highest  stations;  and  when 
statements  are  published  touching  the  standing  of  an  indi- 
vidual as  a  Christian  minister,  he  ought  in  fairness  to  have 
the  opportunity  of  vindicating  himself. 

The  history  of  my  connection  with  St.  Clairsville  Presby- 
tery is  briefly  this  :  Last  June  they  received  me  as  a  licenti- 
ate from  another  Presbytery,  and  appointed  me  to  preach  to 
the  congregation  of  New  Athens  till  their  fall  meeting,  which 
■v^as  all  the  time  the  congregation  then  asked  for — intending 
to  present  a  call  for  my  pastoral  labors  at  that  time.  A  call 
was  presented  and  put  in  my  hands  at  the  October  meeting  of 
the  Presbytery,  and  after  my  acceptance  of  it,  they  proceeded 
to  assign  me  a  subject  for  an  ordination  sermon,  and  "  ad- 
journed to  meet  in  New  Athens  on  the"  first  Tuesday  of 
November,  to  ordain  and  install  mc  pastor  of  this  church,  '  if 
the  way  was  clear.'  "  At  the  time  appointed,  the  Presbytery 
met,  proceeded  to  hear  the  sermon,  and  attended  to  nearly  all 
the  examinations,  which  were  all  unanimously  sustained  as 
parts  of  trial.  But  at  this  point  the  proceedings  were  arrest- 
ed, by  a  motion  "  to  appoint  a  committee  to  examine  certain 


30  LIFE   AND    WRITINGS    OF 

letters  written  by  me,  and  if  possible,  to  induce  me  to  retract 
certain  expressions,"  which  the  Presbytery  chose  to  consider 
oQensive.     The  result  of  this  conference,  and  the  subsequent 
proceedinfrs  of  the  Presbytery,  have  been  given  to  the  public 
in  their  published  report.     The  "  letters  "  were  written   with 
reference  to  the  action  of  the  General  Assembly  of  1845,  on 
the  subject  of  slavery.     My  answers  to  the  questions  of  the 
committee  were,   that  so  far  as  the    langunge    of   my  letter 
was  an  expression  of  opinion  on  the  action  of  the  Assembly, 
I  hold  the  same  language  now;    and  hence,  on  that    point 
had  no  retractions  to  make  ;    but   that    I    did    not    when  I 
wrote  the  letter,  and  did  not  then  intend  to  impugn  or  judge 
any  man's  motives.      With  this  explanation  the    Presbytery 
was  not  satisfied,  and  hence  adopted  their  report,  which  re- 
commended that  all  further  proceedings  be  suspended,  till   I 
should   make   the  required   acknowledgments.     On   this   de- 
cision I  wish  to  ofi'er  tlie  following  considerations  :  First.    It 
is  inconsistent  with,  and  contradictor^/  to,   the  previous  action 
of  the  Presbytery  in  regard  to  myself.    The  "  letter  "  complained 
of  was  written  in  the  summer  of  1845 — before  I   came  into 
the  bounds  of  the  Presbytery  of  St.  Clairsville  at  all — nearly 
a  whole  year  before  they  received  me  as  a  licentiate,  and  sent 
me  to  preach  to  one  of  the  churches,  and  more  than  one  year 
before  their  last  meeting,  at  which  they  refused  to  ordain  me. 
The  language,  then,  of  my  letter,  which  they  call    "slander- 
ous of  the  Presbyterian  church,"  had  been  before  them  long 
before   the   time   in   which   they  took  any  action  in  my  case. 
And  yet,   without  the   least  objection,   they   took    all   these 
several  steps  preparatory  to  my  ordination  ;  nor  was  any  diffi- 
culty even  hinted  at,  until  they  were   almost  ready  to   "  lay 
hands  upon  me  !  "    Now  what  is  the  inevitable  inference  from 
all  this?     Plainly  this,  that  the  Presbytery  of  St.  Clairsville 
considered  that  there  icas  no  objection   to  my  reception  as  a 
licentiate — that  they  considered   me   fit  to   preach  by  their 
authority,  to  one  of  their  own  churches — fit  to  receive  a  call 
through   their   hands — fit  to  be  examined,  and  to  have  those 
examinations   sustained — and  yet   (for  an   act  done  before  I 
ever  came  into  their  bounds)  not  fit   to  receive  ordination  at 
their  hands!!      By   their   previous   action   in    my   case,   the 
Presbytery  virtually  indorsed  every  hvoicn  act  of  my  life,  of 
which  they  had  no  evidence  that  I  had  repented.     They  said 
explicitly,  by  their  act,  that  they  knew   of  no   reason   why  I 
was  not  a  proper  person  to  preach  by  their  authority.     Now, 
is  liot  the  preaching  of  the   gospel    the   most  important  and 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  31 

solemn  part  of  a  minister's  work  ?  and  if  I  am  in  their  judg- 
ment qualified  for  this,  by  what  process  of  law  do  they  come 
to   the   conclusion  that  I  am  unfit  for  the  minor  parts  of  the 
work?     One  of  two  conclusions  seems  therefore  to  force  itself 
upon  us — either  that  the  Presbytery  of  St.  Clairsviile  did  not 
and  do  not  consider  the  sentiments  of  the  offending  "  letter" 
as   a   disqualification  in  one  of  their  preachers,  and  therefore 
that  they  are   insincere  in  their  refusal  to  ordain  me — or,  on 
the  other  hand,  that  they  are  totally  unfit  for  the  oversight  of 
the  churches  committed  to  their  care,  since  they  sent  a   man 
whom  they  profess  to  regard  as  a  "  public  slanderer  "  to  preach 
by  their  authority  to  one  of  those    churches,  and    that   too 
without  one  word  of  warning  to  that  church  to  beware  of  the 
errors  of  this  public  slanderer.     The  Presbytery  can  exercise 
its  discretion,  in  choosing  between  the  horns  of  this  dilemma. 
In  the  second  place,  I  object  to  the  decision  of  the  Presby- 
tery, because  I  regard  the  language  of  my  letter  (in  the  sense 
in  which  I  used  it,  and  which  I  explained  to  the  Presbytery) 
OS  true,  and  capable  of  ample  vindication  from    the    icord  of 
God  and  the  teachings  of  the  Preshyterian  church.     One  of  the 
expressions  that  gave  most  offense,  was  the  term  "  hlasphem- 
o!(s,"  applied  to  the  report  of  the  Assembly  of  1845,  on  the 
subject  of  Slavery.     Now,  if  I  prove  the  term  applicable  and 
true,  whatever  consequences  it  may  involve,  I  am  not  responsi- 
ble.    What   is,    then,    the    teaching    of    that   report?      The 
amount  of  it  is  this — "  that  slaveholding  as  it  exists  in  the 
Southern  part  of  our  country,  should  be   no  bar   to   Christian 
communion."     Now,  the  conclusion   is  irresistible  from  this, 
that  by  the  decision  of  the  Assembly  it  is  no  sin  at  all.  What 
is   the   teaching   and   practice    of  the   church  on  this  point? 
That  "  EVERY   SIN   deserves  God's  wrath  and  curse,  both  in 
this  life   and  the   life   to  come."     If  it  deserves  God's  wrath 
and  curse,  does  it  not  deserve   the   church's  censure  ?     The 
practice  of  the  church  has   been   to  exclude  from  her  com- 
munion every  man  guilty  of  the  open   and  constant  practice 
of  even  the  most  venial  sin,  if  he  refuse,  after  proper  admon- 
ition, to  forsake  it.     Now,  slaveholding  is  an  open,  constant 
practice,  and  slaveholders  not  only  refuse  to  abandon,  but 
openly  avow  their  intention  to  continue  it.     Then  when  the 
General  Assembly  say  that  "to  pronounce  it  a  sin  deserving 
the  discipline  of  the  church,  would  be  to  contradict  the  plain- 
est teachings  of  the  word  of  God,"  they  say  by  the  plainest 
inference,  that  it  is  not  a  sin  at  all.     If,  then,  to  pronounce 
slavery  a  sin  would  be  to  contradict  the  plain  teachings  of  the 


32  LIFE    AND    V."EITINGS    OF 

Bible,  to  pronounce  it  holy  must  be  to  accord  with  these 
"  plain  teachings."  Slavery,  then,  they  teach,  harmonizes 
with  the  teachings  of  the  Bible  :  it  must  of  consequence 
harmonize  with  the  character  of  the  xVuthor  of  the  Bible  : 
God's  word  is  but  a  transcript  or  copy  of  his  character.  Then 
I  understand  the  report  to  teach  that  American  slavery  accords 
with  the  character  of  God.  Now  what  is  blasphemy  ?  Noah 
Webster  says,  "it  is  an  indignity  or  dishonor  cast  upon  God 
by  writing  or  speech."  If,  then,  it  be  not  an  "  indignity  and 
dishonor"  of  the  grossest  kind,  and  therefore  hlasphemi/  the 
most  daring,  to  say  even  by  remote  implication,  that  Amer- 
ican slavery  harmonizes  with  the  character  of  Deity,  I  am  at 
a  loss  to  know  how  God  could  be  dishonored  or  blasphemed. 

But  to  the  same  point  we  come  by  a  shorter  process.  The 
report  says  explicitly,  that  slaveholders  were  taken  into  the 
church  by  Christ  and  his  apostles.  Their  open  practices  were 
taken  along.  Into  his  Church  nothing  ever  came  with  the 
approval  of  Christ,  but  what  was  holy  and  like  himself. 
Slavery,  says  the  report,  came  by  his  approval,  therefure  is 
slavery  lioJy  and  like  to  Jesus.  But  what  is  slavery?  The 
same  authority  that  says  this,  defines  it  to  be  a  gross  violation 
of  the  most  sacred  rights  of  human  natui'e — utterly  inconsistent 
toith  the  law  of  God.,  and  totally  irreconcilable  with  the  gospel 
of  Christ."  And  yet  there  is  no  blasphemy  in  saying  that 
this  thing  came  into  the  Church  with  the  approbation  of  God, 
and  therefore  bears  his  image  !  !  I  quote  just  one  extract  to 
show  that  I  am  not  singular  in  the  use  of  this  language.  The 
Presbytery  of  Chillicothe  (and  some  of  its  members  are  old 
men)  declares  that  "  they  can  not  hold  fellowship  with  any 
Presbytery,  Synod,  or  other  ecclesiastical  body,  that  tolerates 
the  justification  of  slavcholding  by  appeal  to  the  Scriptures, 
which  in  their  judgment  is  hlasphemy  of  Almighty  God,  and 
a  shocking  prostitution  of  his  word." 

There  is  one  other  expression  in  my  letter  that  gave  special 
oifense — that  "  the  majority  of  the  Assembly  of  1845  mani- 
fested a  determination  to  earn  the  title,  "  brotherhood  of 
thieves."  This  may  seem  harsh  language  from  "  a  mere 
tyro,"  but  the  Presbyterian  church  ("  our  mother,"  as  a  vene- 
rable Doctor  delighted  to  call  her)  has  taught  me  to  use  it; 
therefore  let  me  not  bear  the  guilt  of  its  use  alone.  If  slave- 
holding  be  thfft,  then  not  only  those  engaged  in  it,  but  those 
fraternizing  with  them  and  sanctioning  them  in  the  practice, 
deserve  the  appellation,  "brotherhood  of  thieves."  That 
slavcholding  is  man-stealing,  is  the   express  teaching  of  the 


REV.   JOSEPH    GOKDOK".  33 

Presbyterian  cliurcli  in  former  days.  ''Stealers  of  men  are 
all  those  who  are  engaged  in  bringing  men  into  slavery,  or  in 
detaining  them  in  it,"  said  the  Church  in  1794.  Who  are 
slaveholders,  if  not  those  engaged  in  "  detaining "  men  in 
slavery  ?  and,  therefore,  who  are  men-stealers,  if  slaveholders 
be  not?  Hear  the  Church  again:  "Men-stealers  are  all 
those  who  heep,  sell,  or  buy  slaves."  Who,  we  ask  again,  are 
slaveholders,  if  not  those  who  "keep  slaves?"  Yet  these 
the  venerable  fathers  call  men-stealers.  Now  when  the  Pres- 
bytery of  St.  Clairsville  has  made  out  a  clear  distinction  be- 
tween a  man-stcalcr  and  a  thief,  then,  and  not  till  then,  will 
they  have  a  right  to  proscribe  me  for  the  use  of  the  phrase, 
"  brotherhood  of  thieves."  It  is  the  language  of  gamine 
"  Old  Schoolism  " — not  of  the  patent,  spurious,  pro-slavery 
Old  Schoolism  so  rife  at  the  present  time.  Why  then  must  I 
be  condemned  for  using  the  language  taught  me  by  Dr.  Ash- 
bel  Green,  and  other  men,  whose  memories  the  Church  de- 
lights to  honor  ?  Why  this  "  building  the  tombs  of  prophets, 
and  garnishing  the  sepulchers  of  the  righteous,"  and  yet  per- 
secuting the  men  that  preach  their  principles  ? 

But  there  is  higher  authority  than  even  the  Church  for 
using  the  language.  "Our  mother"  only  borrowed  it  from 
the  pages  of  inspiration.  "The  law,  says  Paul,  "is  made  for 
murderers  of  fathers  and  murderers  of  mothers,  for  whore- 
mongers, for  men-stealers."  The  law  here  referred  to  may  be 
found,  Exodus  xxi :  15,  16,  etc.  "  He  that  smiteth  his  father 
or  his  mother  shall  surely  be  put  to  death,  and  he  that  steal- 
eth  a  man  and  selleth  him,  or  if  he  be  found  in  his  hand,  shall 
surely  be  put  to  death.  Now,  in  whose  hands  are  the  stolen 
sons  of  Africa  found,  if  not  in  the  hands  of  slaveholders  ?  and 
who,  I  once  more  inquire,  are  slaveholders,  if  not  those  in 
"  lohose  hands  the  slave  is  found?  "  Slaver}'  came  originally 
by  theft  and  piracy  :  the  stolen  men,  or  their  offspring  (which 
is  just  the  same)  are  now  found  in  the  hands  of  the  very  men 
who,  the  General  Assembly  say,  should  not  be  excluded  IVom 
Christian  communion. 

Now,  I  call  upon  the  Presbytery  of  St.  Clairsville  to  meet 
these  proofs  and  authorities  fairly.  I  claim  the  authority  of 
the  Church,  of  the  fathers  and  the  word  of  God,  for  using  the 
language  I  did  use;  and  until  this  evidence  is  fairly  set  aside,  I 
hurl  back  the  charge  of  indiscretion  and  presumption  so  lib- 
erally heaped  upon  me,  because,  forsooth,  I  was  not  born  quite 
so  soon  as  some  other  men — because  I  am  ^^  a  young  man,"  or, 
as  a  venerable  Doctor  expressed  it,  "a  mere  tyro." 
4 


34  LIFE    AND    WRITINGS    OF 

I  close  this  communication  with  two  remarks  :  First,  Fair- 
ness would  require  of  the  Presbytery  the  publication  of  the 
whole  letter,  and  not  of  detached  sentences  taken  out  of  their 
connection.  The  language  was  based  on  two  suppositions — 
that  slavery  is  a  system  of  theft  and  blood,  and  that  the  As- 
sembly of  184:5  gave  it  their  approval.  If  these  assumptions 
are  correct  (and  it  was  never  once  attempted  to  prove  the 
contrary),  then  the  language  of  my  letter  was  neither  "  too 
strong  nor  inappropriate."  "Was  any  of  the  Presbytery  in 
place  of  the  slave,  he  would  not  think  the  language  "  too 
strong."  Yet  God  commands  us  to  "  feel  for  those  in  bonds 
as  hound  with  (hem.''  The  second  remark  is,  that  I  wish  the 
majority  of  the  Presbytery  of  St.  Clairsville  (and  I  have 
spoken  only  of  the  majority  :  to  the  minority  I  tender  my 
thanks ) ;  to  know  that  to  retract  (o  authoriUj  is  a  proceeding  I 
do  not  understand.  It  is  manly  and  Christian  to  recant  error 
and  abandon  a  false  position,  when  the  judgment  is  con- 
vinced ;  and  thus  I  hope  God  will  make  me  willing  always  to  do. 
But  it  is  base  and  pusilanimous  in  the  extreme,  to  "  take  even 
a  letter  back  "  simply  because  other  men  choose  to  think  it 
out  of  place,  and  offer  no  reason  save  that  they  will  to  have 
it  so.  Retraction  on  such  grounds,  I  utterly  and  forever  dis- 
claim. JOSEPPI  GORDON. 
New  Athens,  Nov.  23,  1846. 


Wishing  to  occupy  as  little  space  as  possible  in  the 
papers  to  which  the  above  article  was  sent  for  publication,  I 
said  nothing  of  the  unconstitutionality  of  the  proceeding  of 
Presbytery.  It  constitutes  a  further  objection  that  it  was  a 
palpable  violation  of  the  Constitution.  If  the  language  of  my 
letter  was  "  slanderous,"  and  constituted  an  oifense  deserving 
judicial  investigation  and  censure — then  the  Presbytery  of 
Coshocton  was  the  only  court  competent  to  try  the  case.  The 
Constitution  expressly  teaches,  tJiat  everi/  offense  shall  he  tried 
hy  the  court  under  lohose  jurisdiction  the  individual  is  ichen  he 
commits  it.  (See  Discipline,  chap.  10,  sec.  1  and  2.)  If,  on 
the  contrary,  it  was  for  for  my  "  views  and  sentiments,"  of  the 
action  of  the  Assembly,  that  they  refused  to  ordain  me,  then 
their  act  was  not  only  unconstitutional  but  tyrannical.  On 
this  subject  opinions  are  Icftfree.  The  Constitution  prescribes 
the  trials  fur  ordination,  and  leaves  nothing  to  the  discretion  of 
the  Preshytery  save  the  hranches  of  learning  on  ichich  the  shall 
he  examined,  and  the  numher  of  his  trial  sermons.  On  all  sub- 
jecta  not  authoritatively  settled  by  the  Constitution,  a  man 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  85 

has  the  right  to  hold  and  utter  whatever  sentiments  he 
pleases;  nor  has  any  church  court  a  right  to  call  him  to  ac- 
count for  the  proper  expression  of  those  views.  If  a  Presby- 
tery may  exclude  a  man  from  the  right  of  ordination  for  his 
sentiments  on  subjects  in  regard  to  which  the  Constitution 
has  left  opinions  free,  then  that  Constitution  is  a  rope  of 
sand  ;  and  the  terms  of  admission  to  the  ministry,  are  left  to 
the  whim  of  every  Presbytery. 


[For  the  Liberty  Advocate.] 

New  Athens,  Dec.  6,  1846. 

The  congregation  of  the  Presbyterian  church  of  New 
Athens,  having  met  agreeably  to  adjournment,  Judge  Hanna 
was  called  to  the  chair.  The  meeting  having  taken  into  con- 
sideration the  proceedings  of  the  Presbytery  of  St.  Clairsville, 
lately  held  in  this  place,  to  ordain  and  install  Pev.  Joseph 
Gordon  pastor  of  said  church,  after  due  deliberation,  unani- 
mously passed  the  following  preamble  and  resolutions  : 

Whereas,  The  Presbytery  of  St.  Clairsville  received  the 
Rev.  Joseph  Gordon  as  a  licentiate,  appointed  him  to  preach 
to  us  as  a  supply ;  put  a  call  into  his  hands;  adjourned  to 
meet  here  to  ordain  him  ;  and  after  hearing  nearly  all  his 
examinations  and  his  sermon,  unanimously  sustained  them  as 
parts  of  trial ;  and  then,  for  sentiments  published  nearly  a 
year  before  they  received  him,  refused  to  ordain  him,  There- 
fore, 

Resolvd,  That  we  regard  the  action  of  the  Presbytery  as  a 
breach  of  implied  faith — plainly  given  in  their  previous  acts. 

Resolved,  That  we  feel  aggrieved  by  said  action  of  Presby- 
tery. 

Resolved,  That  as  a  congregation,  we  cordially  sustain  Mr. 
Gordon  in  the  position  ho  has  taken  before  Presbytery. 

Resolved,  That  we  believe  the  language  of  Mr.  Gordon's 
letter  to  the  Mt.  Pleasant  convention  of  July  23d,  1S45,  is 
not  "stronger '■'  than  aui/ man  would  use  if  subjected  to  the 
condition  of  the  slave,  and,  that  we  are  required  to  ''feel  for 
those  in  bonds  as  hound  tcith  them.'' 

Resolved,  That  these  proceedings  be  signed  by  the  Chair- 
man, and  published  in  the  Rreshylerian  Advocate  and  Presby- 
terian of  the  West. 

JOHN  HANNA,  Chairman. 

After  the  adjournment  of  Presbytery  he  continued  the  dis- 


36  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS    OF 

charge  of  his  duties  in  the  college,  and  ministered  to  the 
church  during  the  succeeding  winter.  In  the  following  spring 
the  congregation  sent  up  two  commissioners  to  the  next  stated 
meeting,  requesting  them  to  reconsider  their  action,  and  come 
back  and  ordain  their  minister.  The  request  was  refused, 
and  a  new  plan  was  struck  out.  They  took  advantage  of  Sec- 
tion 11th,  Chapter  l-lth  of  the  book  of  discipline,  which  de- 
clares that  "  when  a  licentiate  has  been  preaching  a  consider- 
able time,  and  his  services  do  not  appear  to  be  edifying  to  the 
churches,  the  Presbytery  may.  if  they  think  proper,  recall 
his  license."  This  article  did  not  in  letter  or  spirit  meet  the 
case.  The  candidate  could  preach  ;  the  congregation  thought 
him  edifying  and  were  urgent  for  his  ordination.  Still  it  was 
the  best  they  could  do.  Sheltered  behind  it,  they  could  keep 
their  victim  gagged,  and  pass  him  through  their  ecclesiastical 
guillotine  in  silence.  To  give  him  an  opportunity  of  defense 
they  dreaded.  They  consequently  appointed  a  meeting  at 
Wheeling  Valley,  some  miles  from  Athens.  By  this  time 
the  people  of  Athens  generally  had  very  little  respect  for 
them,  and  its  atmosphere  did  not  suit  them.  They  again  de- 
manded a  retraction  on  mere  ai^thorit}^,  which  was  respectfully 
declined  as  before.  They  then  by  a  large  majority  voted  to 
strip  him  of  his  license  and  struck  his  name  from  the  roll  of 
candidates.  The  moderator  contrary  to  the  Constitution  voted 
to  swell  the  majority.  Thus  the  Presbytery  of  St.  Clairsville 
made  a  false  and  perverted  use  of  an  article  in  the  book  of 
discipline,  never  intended  for  such  a  case ;  and  neither  for 
alleged  crime  nor  heresy,  virtually  deposed  a  young  minister, 
and  tried  to  degrade  him  from  his  office,  and  in  the  true  spirit 
of  inquisitors,  refused  him  a  hearing  in  his  own  defense.  A 
license  was  taken  away  which  was  conferred  three  years  before 
by  another  Presbytery  immensely  their  superior  in  every  de- 
sirable qualification.  Mr.  Gordon  bore  their  persecution  with 
that  quiet,  yet  fixed  determination  for  which  he  was  remarka- 
able  in  all  his  movements.  His  friends  wished  him  to  carry 
the  case  up  by  "  appeal  or  complaint "  to  the  Synod  of  Wheel- 
ing next  fall.  This  he  declined.  He  expected  but  little 
sympathy  from  a  body  whose  highest  court  had  declared  "  do- 
mestic slavery  under  the  circumstances  in  which  it  is  found 
in  the  southern  portion  of  the  country,  no  bar  to  Christian 
communion."  -* 

It  seemed  to  him  better  at  once  to  seek  an  ecclesiastical 
connection  where  he  could  enjoy  Christian  liberty  of  thought 
and  utterance.     In  the. doctrines  and  order  of  the  Presbyte- 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  37 

rian  churcli  he  had  been  educated  and  to  them  he  was  strong- 
ly attached.  He  had  often  made  the  mortifying,  but  truthful 
confession,  that  the  two  branches  of  the  Presbyterian  church 
— the  Old  and  New  School  in  the  United  States,  were  the  only 
members  of  the  great  Presbyterian  family,  that  were  false  to 
the  principles  of  civil  and  religious  liberty.  He  resolved  to 
seek  ordination  from  the  Presbytery  of  Eipley,  a  body  which 
on  account  of  their  complicity  with  slaveholding  had  declined 
the  connection  of  both  Assemblies ;  accordingly  he  was  or- 
dained by  that  Presbytery  in  September,  1847. 

In  the  meantime  his  church  and  congregation  met  and  re- 
solved to  withdraw  from  the  jurisdiction  of  a  Presbytery  for 
which  they  had  lost  respect.  They  believed  the  body  had 
violated  ecclesiastical  law  and  order,  and  requested  their  min- 
ister to  treat  their  action  as  a  nullity,  that  is,  continue  to 
preach  to  them  by  virtue  of  his  original  license  by  the  Pres- 
bytery of  Washington,  which  they  wished  him  to  regard  as 
Still  valid.  To  this  he  consented,  and  preached  some  three 
months  in  this  way  before  he  was  ordained. 

After  his  ordination  the  Presbytery  of  Eipley  was  divided 
into  two,  and  Mr.  Gordon  was  dismissed  with  a  view  of  unit- 
ing with  Messrs.  Bradford  and  McLean,  who  had  seceded 
from  the  Presbytery  of  Beaver ;  in  forming  the  "  Free  Pres- 
bytery of  Mahoning."  This  was  soon  afterward  done.  A 
short  time  afterward  the  three  Presbyteries  united  and  formed 
the  Synod  of  the  "  Free  Presbyterian  Church  of  the  United 
States." 

The  question  has  been  asked,  would  the  Synod  of  Wheeling 
have  sustained  this  action,  so  manifestly  unconstitutional  and 
high-handed  on  the  part  of  the  Presbytery,  in  case  an  "ap- 
peal "  or  "complaint"  had  been  regularly  carried  up?  Of 
course  the  question  can  not  be  answered  with  certainty.  The 
writer  thinks  it  due  to  that  body  to  say  he  believes  they  would 
not.  The  course  afterward  taken  by  the  Presbytery,  clearly 
indicated  their  own  fears  on  the  subject.  The  only  way  the 
Synod  could  reach  it  was  by  "  review  and  control  "  when  their 
minutes  would  come  up  for  examination.  Their  stated  clerk, 
Eev.  B.  Mitchell,  brought  them  to  the  Synod,  and  after  the 
committee  to  examine  them  was  appointed  he  sent  them  home. 
The  excuse  given  was  that  their  temporary  clerk  had  been 
sick,  and  consequently  they  were  not  completed.  Why  they 
were  brought  to  Synod  at  all  under  these  circumstances,  and 
immediately  sent  away  after  the  committee  to  examine  them 
was  named,  they  did  not  state.     The  only  explanation  that 


38  "  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

suggests  itself  was  either  that  the  plan  of  keeping  them  back 
a  year,  that  the  matter  might  to  some  extent  fade  away,  was  an 
after  thought ;  or  else  that  the  committee  of  examination  was 
one  that  did  not  suit  them. 

Several  members  of  Synod  manifested  dissatisfaction.  A 
Dr.  of  Divinity  of  high  respectability  and  influence,  said  it 
was  particuhirly  unfortunate  for  that  Presbytery  to  keep  back 
their  minutes,  after  the  strange  proceedings  that  were  reported 
of  them.  One  member  of  the  Presbytery  came  to  the  aid  of 
the  stated  clerk,  seemed  to  wax  warm  and  bold  and  said  '-they 
had  done  nothing  they  were  ashamed  of"  That  was  a  lower 
degree,  and  greater  obtuseness  of  attainment,  than  their  con- 
duct seemed  to  indicate! 

The  circumstances  under  which  men  evince  fidelity  to  God, 
to  truth  and  to  principle  are  immensely  varied,  but  the  spirit 
of  such  actions  is  in  all  cases  much  the  same.  The  elements 
of  real  greatness  may  often  be  exhibited  in  an  humble  way. 
The  mean  and  diabolical  spirit  of  persecution  with  which  such 
men  are  tried,  is  much  nearer  alike  also,  than  is  generally 
suppposed.  The  implements  to  be  wielded  by  the  enemies  of 
Luther,  were  the  stake  with  its  faggots  and  fire,  or  the  inqui- 
sition with  its  racks  and  tortures.  We  seem  to  see  a  sublim- 
ity in  the  courage  that  could  calmly  face  these  terrors,  and 
adhere  to  principle  while  they  flashed  and  threatened.  Hence 
we  gaze  with  emotions  of  grandeur  and  sublimity  on  Luther 
as  he  stood  before  the  Diet  of  Worms,  and  plead  the  cause  of 
God  and  truth;  and  when  a  retraction  was  vociferously  de- 
manded by  the  minions  of  the  Papacy  he  calmly  laid  his  hand 
on  his  breast  and  said  "I  can  retract  nothing,  God  help  me." 
Stii!  the  lofty  moral  courage  shown  by  the  great  reformer  was 
the  same  in  nature,  and  differed  only  in  degree  and  circum- 
stance from  that  of  the  man  who  can  stand  erect  against  the 
vociferous  demands  of  a  modern  ecclesiastical  court,  armed 
with  the  jDOwer  of  public  opinion  and  popular  odium.  Neither 
is  there  the  difference  between  the  spirit  of  the  Ghostly  In- 
quisitors who  surrounded  the  monk  of  Wittemburg,  and  the 
ecclesiastics  who  apologize  for  slaveholding  in  our  day,  and 
persecute  those  who  expose  its  fathomless  abominations;  — 
that  at  first  view  we  would  generally  think.  When  human 
actions  pass  in  review  before  the  "judge  of  quick  and  dead," 
they  will  be  much  nearer  alike  than  is  generally  supposed, 
John  C.  Calhoun  said  the  war  of  the  abolitionists  against  the 
South  was  more  to  be  dreaded  than  one  of  devastation  and 
blood  ;  as  it  was  a  war  waged  against  their  characters.     The 


REV.    JOSEPH   GORDON.  39 

great  mistake  of  the  statesman  was  that  the  war  of  which  he 
complained,  is  not  levied  acainst  the  Southern  people,  but 
against  this  *' peculiar  institution."  He  vras  right  in  regard- 
ing a  war  against  character  as  the  worst.  In  Luther's  case 
life  was  threatened.  In  our  day  the  plan  is  to  fulminate  eccle- 
siastical censures  and  suspensions — destroy  reputation — pre- 
vent congregations  from  giving  employment — take  away  the 
means  of  living  from  a  man,  and  thus  afflict  him  with  the 
wants  of  a  dependent  family;  and  by  these  and  similar  annoy- 
ances (as  a  popular  divine  expressed  it),  "keep  order  in  War- 
saw." Times  and  circumstances  change  but  human  nature 
remains  the  same.  "If  they  have  persecuted  me,  they  will 
persecute  you."  "  They  that  will  live  godly  in  Christ  Jesus, 
shall  suffer  persecution." 

After  the  church  of  Athens  left  the  Presbytery,  and  their 
minister  was  ordained,  and  the  Free  Church  was  organized, 
nothing  very  special  occurred  with  Mr.  Grordon,  during  the 
next  two  years.  The  severe  ordeal  through  which  he  had 
passed  unscathed,  resulted  in  his  good.  It  enlisted  the  sym- 
pathies of  good  men  generally  in  his  behalf  and  brought  him 
into  notice.  His  quiet,  unobtrusive  disposition  required  some- 
thing of  the  kind  to  rouse  him,  and  draw  him  out.  Small 
Free  churches  were  organized  at  different  points  within  his 
reach.  With  these  he  labored  in  season,  and  out  of  season. 
His  friend — Rev.  Thomas  Merrill — who  with  a  few  intelligent 
and  noble-souled  elders  had  stood  by  him  all  through  his  per- 
secutions in  the  Presbytery,  seceded  soon  after  he  left,  and 
became  co-laborers  in  the  cause  of  church  reform.  Their 
numbers  were  small,  but  what  they  lacked  in  this  respect,  was 
made  up  in  union  and  zeal. 

In  the  spring  of  18-1-9  he  had  a  hemorrhage  from  the  lungs, 
which  eight  years  afterward  resulted  in  his  death.  It  came 
on  as  he  was  returning  on  horseback  from  his  last  appointment 
on  the  evening  of  the  Lord's  day.  It  seemed  by  no  means 
improbable  to  himself  that  he  might  die  on  the  road.  His 
preaching  was  suspended,  but  his  college  duties  were  kept  up 
during  the  year.  In  the  spring  of  1850,  the  Free  Church 
determined  to  start  a  weekly  paper,  and  with  entire  unanim- 
ity he  was  selected  as  its  editor.  He  consequently  removed 
to  Mei'cer,  Pa.,  and  continued  to  edit  the  Free  Prcshijferianj 
till  the  summer  of  1852.  In  the  mean  time  his  health  im- 
proved, and  he  gradually  resumed  his  pulpit  labors.  The  Free 
church  of  Mercer,  now  under  the  pastoral  care  of  Rev.  J.  W. 
Torrence,  and  the  nucleus  of  the  flourishing  pastoral  charge 


40  LIFE   AND    WRITINGS    OF 

of  Rev.  A.  B.  Bradford,  in  New  Castle,  eacli  enjoj^ed  a  share 
of  his  labors. 

In  the  summer  of  1852,  the  Free  Missionary  published  at 
Cincinnati,  and  the  Free  Presbyterian  were  merged  in  the 
Christian  Press.  Mr.  Gordon  was  appointed  one  of  its  editors, 
and  also  one  of  the  Secretaries  of  the  "American  Missionary 
Association  ;  "  in  consequence  of  which  he  removed  to  Cleve- 
land, and  entered  on  the  duties  of  his  office.  He  had  but 
commenced  in  his  new  field,  when  his  health  suddenly  again 
gave  way,  and  he  left  Cleveland  and  retired  among  his 
friends,  not  expecting  to  live  but  a  few  weeks.  After  a  time 
his  constitution  again  unexpectedly  rallied,  and  by  the  sum- 
mer of  1853  he  was  able  to  resume  his  editorial  chair.  In 
connection  with  his  colleague.  Rev.  Wm.  G.  Kephart,  the 
Free  Presbyterian  was  revived,  and  published  at  Albany, 
Athens  county,  Ohio.  At  the  same  time  he  was  elected  prin- 
cipal of  the  "Albany  Manual  Labor  vVcademy."  For  some 
cause,  or  causes,  not  fully  known  to  the  writer,  the  situation 
did  not  suit  him.  After  a  year's  hard  labor,  on  the  part  of 
himself  and  colleague,  they  dissolved  with  mutual  kindness 
and  confidence,  and  he  removed  the  paper  to  Yellow  Springs, 
in  April,  1854.  Here  he  edited  and  published  it  till  Septem- 
ber, 1S57.  Though  not  a  practical  printer,  necessity  com- 
pelled him  to  learn  the  art,  which  he  did  in  a  very  short 
time;  and  for  three  years  and  a  half  he  acted  as  foreman  in 
his  office;  did  a  journeyman's  labor  in  setting  type;  besides 
editing  the  paper,  and  supplying  the  church  of  Clifton,  and 
occasionally  some  other  points  with  the  ministrations  of  the 
gospel.  But  the  labor  was  too  great.  The  last  year  his 
health  gradually  declined,  and  in  the  fall  of  1857  he  relin- 
quished the  editorial  chair,  and  removed  to  the  home  of  his 
childhood.  He  hoped  to  recruit  his  constitution  by  light 
labor  on  a  farm,  but  it  was  too  late.  It  had  twice  rallied 
before,  but  now  its  vitality  was  too  far  spent.  His  voice  so 
left  him,  that  he  could  usually  speak  but  in  whispers;  his 
strength  also  declined,  and  the  grave  was  manifestly  soon  to 
inherit  all  that  was  mortal  in  his  nature.  He  met  the  stern 
approach  of  the  "last  enemy,"  with  the  same  cheerful  and 
calm  serenity,  which  always  characterized  him  in  the  day  of 
trial.  He  breathed  his  last  on  the  morning  of  the  Sabbath, 
28th  of  February. 

Death  is  always  a  solemn  and  melancholy  scene.  To  the 
subject  it  is  momentous  —  to  the  watchers  impressive.  It  is 
the  abandonment  of  tho  lonfr-lovod  and  cherished  rerilitics  of 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  41 

life,  for  the  land  of  silence  and  of  gloom.  The  passage  from 
the  visible  to  the  invisible;  an  abandonment  of  the  warm  and 
tender  affections,  so  long  familiar,  to  a  new  and  incompre- 
hensible mode  of  existence.  The  whole  passage  and  change 
is  such  an  act  of  unnatural  violence,  that  we  instinctively 
shrink  back  from  it,  and  cling  with  tenacity  to  the  familiar 
realities  of  time.  Probably,  no  other  beings  in  the  universe 
have  such  a  passage  to  make,  or  such  a  change  to  undergo. 
Angels  are  not  required,  like  men,  to  pass  at  any  time  a  dark 
barrier,  impenetrable  to  their  vision,  and  full  of  vague  and 
unnatural  uncertainties  beyond. 

On  man's  future,  nature  gives  no  light.  She  may  stand 
by  the  dying  scene,  see  the  form  grow  cold  and  ghastly,  the 
eye  glazed  and  dim;  but  when  the  soul  seems  to  float  away 
with  the  closing  breath,  she  can  not  tell  whether  the  living, 
feeling,  thinking  soul  passes  into  another  mode  of  develop- 
ment, or  sinks  into  the  dark  night  of  unconsciousness.  Such 
is  death  without  revelation. 

Faith  alone  reveals  the  future,  and  gives  it  substance  and 
reality.  Its  achievements  are  all  wonderful.  How  often  the 
dying  alone  are  cheerful,  calm,  and  happy.  They  shed  no 
tears,  feel  no  gloom,  experience  no  fears,  but  look  on  the 
separation  from  their  friends  as  short,  and  catch  a  glimpse  as 
they  pass  the  shadowy  vale,  of  brighter  and  better  scenes 
beyond. 

These  consolations  were  sweetly  experienced  by  the  subject 
of  this  memoir.  We  subjoin  a  short  extract  from  a  letter 
written  by  his  bereaved  and  widowed  wife,  a  short  time  after 
his  death.  The  letter  was  written  without  any  idea  of  its 
publication,  and  the  extract  inserted  without  the  knowledge 
or  consent  of  the  writer. 

"  On  New-Year's  day  he  appeared  very  sad  ;  he  told  me  he 
might  never  see  another  return  of  the  day;  that  he  had  been 
reviewing  his  life,  had  tried  and  wished  to  do  right,  but  had 
been  a  great  sinner;  that  he  thought  the  Lord  had  forgiven 
him,  and  if  ho  lived  he  hoped  to  live  better,  and  do  some 
good  in  a  quiet  way.  *  ^'  -'^  At  times  he  seemed  very 
happy,  and  would  say  that  he  could  almost  see  the  smile  of 
his  heavenly  Father.  The  peculiar  and  constant  state  of  his 
mind,  seemed  that  of  perfect  repose,  and  confidence  in  the 
goodness  and  wisdom  of  his  heavenly  Father,  entire  trust  in 
his  Saviour,  and  complete  submission  to  his  will.  He  always 
thought  too  much  stress  was  laid  upon  the  words  of  the  dying, 


42  LIFE    AND    WHITINGS    OP 

and  that  a  much  better  test  of  character  was  the  tenor  of 
their  life. 

"  Pic  said,  not  long  before  he  left  us,  that  ho  supposed  some 
would  think  he  delighted  in  saying  hard  things,  and  opposing 
others  ;  but  that  no  one  could  cwr  know  how  hard  it  had  been 
for  him  to  take  the  coiirse  he  did  :  that  he  liked  the  good 
will  and  approbation  of  men,  as  much  as  any  one,  but  that  he 
thought  duty  called  him  to  take  the  stand  he  had. 

"  How  ^cv^  live  such  a  life !  So  self-sacrificing,  so  bur- 
dened with  the  woes  and  sins  of  humanity ;  so  firm  and 
unyielding  in  vindicating  the  ho^or  of  God.  His  last  words 
were,  '  I  will  go  to  sleep.'  He  then  fell  into  a  gentle  slum- 
ber, and  passed  to  the  sleep  of  death." 

To  the  above  we  add  an  obituary,  from  the  pen  of  the 
Rev.  Robert  Burgess,  a  Free  Presbyterian  minister,  and  pub- 
lished in  the  Christian  Leader^  together  with  the  preliminary 
remarks  of  the  editor,  Rev.  William  Perkins. 

Rev.  Joseph  Gordon  has  Died. 

Our  whole  church  is  bereaved.  For  years  our  deceased 
brother  was  its  weekly  teacher  and  faithful  pastor.  By  his 
voice  and  pen,  he  spread  abroad  the  whole  truth,  whether 
men  would  hear  or  forbear.  He  warmly  and  courageously 
espoused  the  cause  of  the  poor,  down-trodden  stranger.  Could 
these  millions  in  their  prison-house  of  despair  now  hear  of 
the  faithful  friend  they  have  lost,  their  weeping  were  like  the 
widows  of  Joppa,  over  the  body  of  Dorcas  !  Poor  sufferers! 
we  fondly  hope  that  in  the  gi'cat  mercy  of  Christ,  not  a  few 
may  greet  their  noble  friend,  where  "the  wicked  cease  from 
troixbling"  and  "the  weary  "  forever  "rest." 

Our  cause  has  lost  one  of  its  most  efficient  advocates.  The 
"  Leader^'''  in  a  double  sense  must  credit  Bro.  G.  with  much 
of  its  huiublc  influence.  It  succeeds  the  weekly  he  so  ably 
conducted  for  years,  while  its  unworthy  editor  was  reasoned 
into  his  Free  Church  position,  chiefly  by  his  lucid  arguments. 
So  has  it  been  with  many  others,  He  wore  out  his  voice  and 
his  body  in  this  blessed  service.  Did  our  success  alone  de- 
pend upon  efficient  laborers,  our  loss  were  irreparable.  But 
wo  must  remember  that  the  race  is  not  to  the  swift,  nor  tlie 
battle  to  the  strong.  Could  we  plant  as  did  Paul,  and  water 
as  did  Apollos,  all  were  vain  till  God  chooses  to  give  the 
increase.     Never  is  he  more  ready  to  give  it  than  when  we 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  43 

feel  our  humble  dependence  upon  Him.     "When  I  am  weak, 
then  I  am  strong." 

We  sorrow  then,  not  as  others  without  hope.  God  having 
raised  our  Saviour,  in  whom  our  brother  has  fallen  asleep, 
will,  in  due  time,  reanimate  his  slumbering  body.  So  will  he 
raise  up  other  faithful  servants  to  carry  forward  his  precious 
cause.  The  war  is  not  ended,  though  a  good  and  great  sol- 
dier be  discharged.  As  the  conflict  waxes,  needful  means 
will  be  furnished,  and  the  powers  of  darkness  tremble.  Left 
as  we  are  on  the  field  with  the  bright  example  of  our  fallen 
brother  to  animate  us,  let  us  put  on  the  whole  armor  of  God, 
and  lead  on  his  host  to  that  victory  which  is  made  sure  by 
the  promise  of  Him  who  has  loved  us,  and  given  himself 
for  us. 

Obituary. 

Died,  at  his  residence  near  Washington,  Pa.,  on  Sabbath 
morning,  February  28,  at  3  o'clock,  the  Eev.  Joseph  Gordon, 
aged  38  years,  5  months  and  9  days. 

0  death  !  how  rich  are  thy  spoils  !  Another  great  man 
has  fallen — another  heart  and  home  are  made  desolate — an- 
other household-light  has  been  extinguished  !  Nay,  more,  a 
beacon-light  to  guide  a  ship-wrecked  world  ;  a  watch-fire  on 
the  mountain-hight  of  eternal  truth,  to  cheer  the  hosts  engaged 
in  the  struggle  which  is  to  decide  the  world's  destiny,  in  the 
war  for  the  "  rights  of  God  and  man  "< — the  last  great  "  war  of 
principles."  How  rapidly  pass  away  the  flower  of  earth's 
nobility!  He  was  the  first  and  foremost  in  the  conflict  for 
the  right,  the  first  to  fall  upon  his  laurels  won  ! 

Truly  a  '•  Prince  and  a  great  man  Aa.s  fallen  in  Israel."  "Our 
fathers,  where  are  they?  and  the  prophets,  do  they  live  for- 
ever." But  if  they  have  ascended  in  triumph,  borne  from  our 
sight  by  the  "  Horses  and  chariots  of  fire,"  leaving  behind 
their  "mantle,"  by  which  we  may  smite  the  waters  of  oppo- 
sition and  death,  is  it  not  a  great  gain?  Is  not  their  triumph 
our  own  ? 

How  fitting  too,  was  the  death  of  our  brother !  Plow  suita- 
ble to  his  life  of  toil  and  sacrifice,  and  weariness,  that  he 
should  sink  to  rest  in  the  calm  and  quiet  of  a  sweet  Sabbath 
morn  !  Literally  worn  out  in  the  sacred  cause  of  God  and 
humanity,  it  was  rest  that  he  needed,  and  it  came  in  love, 
the  symbol  and  the  reality  together.  One  of  his  last  expressed 
wishes  was,  "  That  he  might  fall  asleep,  and  awake  in  Heaven." 
It  was  granted.     Near  his  last  moments  he  called  for  drink ; 


44  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

he  drank  largely  and  remarked,  "I  ■will  now  go  to  sleep." 
His  sad  wife  replied,  "  Yes,  dear !  you  will  soon  be  drinking 
the  pure  '  water  of  life.'  "  Accordingly  he  sank  to  rest,  and 
while  he  seemed  to  be  sleeping  sweetly,  he  gently  breathed 
away  his  life. 

His  wife  alone  was  with  him  in  the  closing  scene,  having 
dismissed  all  the  family  to  much  needed  repose.  He  had  bid 
"good  night"  to  his  young  son,  with  a  conscious  last  kiss, 
following  him  with  a  yearning  eye  as  he  retired,  aware  that 
he  should  see  him  on  earth  no  more.  His  dear  wife  had  been 
for  some  time  at  his  side,  wiping  away  the  death-sweat  as  it 
arose  on  his  pale  brow.  Not  thinking  this  was  to  be  his  long, 
last  sleep,  she  turned  a  moment  to  stir  the  fire.  Returning, 
he  breathed  twice,  and  was  no  more. 

A  few  days  before,  he  said,  "  That  he  preferred  rather  to 
die  than  to  live ;  but  that,  for  his  wife  and  child,  he  was  will- 
ing to  live."  At  a  former  visit  by  the  writer  and  Bro.  Dyer 
Burgess,  the  latter  had  remarked,  on  parting,  "  That  he 
thought  he  might  live  to  do  a  great  deal  of  sinning  yet,"  a 
remark  to  which  he  often  afterward  referred,  as  a  strange  and 
sad  saying,  and  as  a  reason  why  he  did  not  "  Wish  to  live, 
and  return  again  to  the  world,  and  to  sin."  He  had  little 
pain  to  endure,  and  said,  "  That  he  had  nothing  to  complain 
of;  much  to  call  for  gratitude." 

During  all  his  sickness  he  uttered  not  a  solitary  complaint; 
and  throughout  gave  three  distinct  proofs  of  preparation  for 
death  :  a  calmness  and  patience  seldom  equaled  ;  a  sensible 
increase,  nay,  an  overflowing  of  "  brotherly  kindness,"  and  a 
great  delight  in  prayer.  On  his  bed  he  said  with  emphasis, 
in  reference  to  the  opening  of  the  41st  Psalm,  "  There  is  a 
promise  I  can  plead  !  I  have  spent  all  my  talents  and  strength 
in  the  service  of  the  poorest  of  Clod's  poor :  I  claim  that 
promise."  It  was  fulfilled.  "  Blessed  is  he  that  considereth 
the  poor ;  the  Lord  will  deliver  him  in  time  of  trouble.  The 
Lord  will  preserve  him  and  keep  him  alive ;  he  shall  be 
blessed  on  the  earth ;  and  thou  wilt  not  deliver  him  to  the 
will  of  his  enemies.  The  Lord  will  strengthen  him  upon  the 
bed  of  languishing;  thou  wilt  make  all  his  bed  in  his  sick- 
ness." His  labors  of  love  for  poor  down-trodden  humanity, 
flowed  from  his  fountain  of  unfeigned  love  to  Christ.  Christ 
forever  made  sacred  our  humanity,  and  all  the  "  rights  of 
man,"  by  his  union  to  our  nature,  "eternal  in  the  heavens." 
So  Bro.  G.  thought.  Hence,  when  his  wife  inquired  of  him, 
"  What  do   you   now,  in  the  full  light  of  eternity,  think  of 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  45 

your  course  in  tlie  Cliurcli?  "  he  replied,  "  That  he  had  never 
written  a  sentence,  which  he  did  not  then  and  now  believe; 
that  the  position  of  his  church  was  God's  truth ;  only  admit- 
ting, that  he  might  have  erred  in  the  proper  spirit." 

A  few  days  previous  to  his  death,  he  was  visited  by  Rev. 
Dr.  Thomas  Hanna,  of  the  Associate  Church,  at  which  time 
the  grounds  of  his  hope  were  fully  discussed.  The  Doctor 
remarked,  that  there  was  a  true  and  a  false  hope ;  and  defined 
the  former.  The  sufferer  added,  '-Such  is  my  hope, — a  hope 
founded  on  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  on  the  intercession  of  Je- 
sus '  within  the  vail.'  "  He  then  quoted  the  promises,  such  as 
"  In  sis  troubles,  I  will  be  with  thee  ;  and  in  seven,  I  will 
not  forsake  thee.  The  mountains  may  depart,  and  the  hills 
be  removed ;  yet  shall  not  my  kindness  depart  from  thee,  nor 
the  covenant  of  my  peace  be  removed,  saith  the  Lord  that  hath 
mercy  on  thee. " 

As  to  his  character  as  a  man,  a  minister,  or  an  editor,  I 
leave  the  task  of  drawing  the  sketch  to  his  more  intimate 
friends,  and  to  abler  pens.  I  write  this  hasty  notice  with  a 
deep  sense  of  my  imperfection,  and  only  because  no  other  is 
on  the  ground  possessing  proper  information.  If  we  write  to 
"comfort  those  that  mourn,"  we  must  not  delay  till  they  too 
are  in  the  grave. 

At  his  funeral  services,  six  ministers  were  present,  includ- 
ing two  of  his  own  church,  Bro.  Dyer  Burgess  and  the 
writer.  The  order  of  the  exercises  was  as  follows  :  Mr.  Hanna 
opened  by  singing  a  Psalm  and  reading  a  chapter.  This  was 
followed  by  some  very  appropriate  remarks  by  Dyer  Burgess. 
Concluded  by  some  additional  remarks  and  prayer  by  the 
writer.  The  benediction  was  pronounced  by  the  Bev.  James 
I.  Brownson,  of  the  0.  S.  Church.  A  large  and  solemn  pro- 
cession, inclement  as  was  the  day,  followed  his  remains  to  the 
grave. 

He  was  much  emaciated  ;  and  yet  as  he  lay  in  his  coffin,  in 
his  full  suit  of  black,  he  looked  so  natural  that  we  all  felt  as 
though  he  were  just  ready  to  rise,  and  "preach  to  us  as  of 
old."  We  laid  him  beyond  the  bustle  of  the  busy  town,  in 
the  still  and  beautiful  new  cemetery,  beneath  the  shade  of  a 
native  oak  grove.  The  sunshine,  as  was  most  fit,  broke 
through  the  wintry  clouds,  and  fell  upon  his  fresh  grave, 
while  we  sadly  turned  away  to  come  again  with  the  spring,  to 
plant  evergreens  and  eglantine  on  his  green  grave. 

Peace  to  his  weary  head  !  There  let  him  sweetly  "  sleep  in 
Jesus"  till  the  glorious  resurrection  morn.     He  himself  said, 


46  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS    OF 

not  long  before,  that  "  though  a  man  of  war,  he  was  a  man  of 
peace."  He  had  fought  for  a  solid,  reliable  peace,  under  the 
banner  inscribed,  "  First  pure,  then  peaceable."  He  well 
knew  that  no  other  peace  could  last.  He  wanted  a  peace 
approved  of  God, — he  hath  it  now.  Reqiiicscat  in  pace.  Often 
will  we  and  others  return  to  visit  that  grave,  to  reassure  our 
feeble  virtue,  to  see  the  windows  of  heaven  open  above  it,  to 
kneel  as  in  a  temple,  to  plant  not  the  cypress  and  yew,  but 
roses  and  amaranths. 

A  short  portrait  of  the  character  of  the  deceased  will  close 
our  part  of  the  volume.  Like  all  the  descendants  of  Adam, 
he  had  his  faults,  and  inifierfections.  But  like  those  of  Gold- 
smith's village-pastor,  even  these  "  leaned  to  virtue's  side." 

Unobtrusive,  quiet,  and  retiring  modesty  was  natural  to  him, 
and  was  carried  to  an  undesirable  degree.  Many  men,  with 
the  same  amount  of  intellect,  scholarship,  and  gifts,  would 
have  more  decidedly  drawn  the  gaze  of  admirers,  and  been 
more  prominent — sometimes  more  viseful.  Until  their  exer- 
cise was  demanded,  he  seemed  unconscious  of  his  own  pow- 
ers;  and  no  man  of  our  acquaintance  had  less  to  say  about 
himself.  The  reader  may  think  this  is  labeled  as  a  fault, 
though  really  an  amiable  virtue.  Yet  it  is  meant  as  expressed. 
A  larger  share  of  self-esteem  would  have  pushed  him  forward 
more  prominently,  drawn  out  to  better  advantage  his  social 
nature,  given  him  a  wider  range  of  private  power,  and  secured 
the  warm  attachinent  of  the  many,  instead  of  the  intimate  few, 
and  enlarged  his  field  of  influence.  Those  social  gifts,  by 
which  many  good  men  talk  others  into  their  views,  sympa- 
thies, and  wishes,  he  possessed  in  but  a  limited  degree.  The 
tripod  of  the  editor,  and  the  stand  of  the  orator  were  his 
places  of  power.  The  social  gifts  of  the  pastor,  and  imposing 
loquacity  of  the  agent,  he  possessed  only  in  a  very  moderate 
degree. 

A  more  prominent,  and  perhaps  the  worst  fault  that 
belonged  to  him,  was  rather  extreme  severity  in  dealing  with 
wrongs  and  wrong-doers.  It  is  common  to  great  minds  to 
possess  strong  passions ;  and  disease  in  his  case  probably 
sharpened  them.  His  own  "  eye  was  single,"  and  his  pur- 
poses transparent,  and  he  gave  no  quarter  to  opposite  qualities 
in  others.  When,  however,  instead  of  consistent  honesty  he 
met  selfishness,  cunning,  duplicity,  Jesuitism,  and  injustice, 
he  was  apt  to  become  indignant,  and  express  himself  with  a 
severity,  of  which  few  men  are  capable.     Especially  was  this 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  47 

the  case  in  dealing  witli  sinnei'S  in  high  places,  and  of  large 
pretensions.  With  corrupt  politicians,  making  boastful  pre- 
tensions to  patriotism  and  democracy,  when  selfishness  and 
despotism  marked  their  conduct;  and  with  ministers  of  the 
gospel,  who  ignored  their  profession  by  lower-law  principles, 
or  pro-slavery  proclivities,  or  any  hypocritical  drivelings,  he 
was  severe  and  unsparing  in  exposure,  and  used  scathing 
denunciations.  These  were  the  only  recollections  of  his 
moral  warfare,  that  gave  him  pain  on  a  bed  of  death.  He 
said  he  had  always  vindicated  what  he  believed  to  be  right; 
and  opposed,  without  respect  of  persons,  what  he  knew^  to  bo 
wrong ;  but  not  always  with  a  meek  and  quiet  spirit.  This  is 
a  fault  which  probably  no  prominent  reformer  (except  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ),  ever  entirely  escaped.  It  belonged  to 
Luther,  Calvin,  and  Knox  ;  to  Whitefield,  Baxter  and  the 
Wesleys. 

In  presenting  a  few  salient  points  of  his  intellectual  char- 
acter, Ju's  remarkahl'i  clearness  of  thouglif,  and  accuracy  of 
scholarship  mai/  be  mentioned.  To  investigate  thoroughly,  and 
become  master  of  the  subject, was  his  motto  when  a  student; 
and  on  the  well-formed  habit,  much  of  his  success,  no  doubt, 
depended.  He  grasped  a  subject  in  all  its  prominent  bear- 
ings, was  free  from  confusion  or  mixture,  and  presented  it 
with  such  clearness  and  simplicity,  as  often  to  make  the 
hearer  think  he  understood  it  as  well  as  the  speaker,  and 
wonder  that  he  never  saw  it  so  before.  When  he  discussed  a 
subject,  the  intelligent  hearer  felt  that  it  was  finished,  and 
that  nothing  more  was  needed  to  fill  it  out.  iSome  speakers 
are  brilliant  and  clear  on  detached  parts,  but  leave  the  discus- 
sion incomplete;  and  when  they  close  the  hearer  thinks  of 
"  Ephraim  "  as  "  a  cake  unturned."  This  was  not  the  case 
with  him. 

2.  Hii  was  in  the  most  desirable  sense  an  original  man.  Hi.s 
was  not  the  originality  of  mere  novelty,  but  that  of  a  clear, 
accurate  and  independent  thinker.  Some  persons  surprise 
and  startle  us  by  the  newness  and  strangeness  of  their  con- 
ceptions and  expressions,  and  the  novelty  of  their  departures 
from  the  old  and  familiar  track ;  but  too  often  they  axe 
empty  and  fallacious.  It  is  originality  at  the  expense  of 
truth.  It  was  not  so  in  his  case.  His  positions  and  thoughts 
met  us  with  something  of  the  familiarity  of  an  old  acquaint- 
ance ;  hut  in  a  dress  so  new  and  improved,  as  to  make  us 
wonder  at  the  felicitous  advancement.  Every  thing  he  said 
bore  the  impress  of  having  been  elaborated  in  his  own  men* 


48  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS    OF 

tal  alembio.  The  thinking  power  of  the  hearer  was  not  ex- 
ercised to  know  whether  the  idea  presented  was  true ;  but 
was  delighted  to  gaze  on  it  for  a  stand-point  from  which  he 
now  viewed  it  for  the  first  time.  Some  writers  and  speakers 
don't  plagiarize,  and  yet  their  conceptions  and  views  are  so 
formed  by  those  of  others,  as  to  impress  the  reader  or  hearer 
with  a  mere  mechanical  rehearsal  of  which  he  heard  twenty 
times  before.  Their  productions  have  no  impress  of  their  own 
minds.  Such  persons  have  no  originality.  Others  will  re- 
hearse a  common-place  thought,  or  a  familiar  principle,  with 
a  freshness  which  makes  us  half  fancy  we  have  now  heard 
them  for  the  first  time.  This  is  the  most  desirable  sense,  in 
which,  in  this  age  of  intelligence  it  is  possible  to  be  original. 

3.  As  a  debater  he  had  the  rare  ability  to  look  over  the 
entire  subject,  and  perceive  at  a  glance  the  strong  and  the 
weak  points  in  the  arguments  of  an  opponent.  This  gave 
him  entire  self-possession.  He  was  never  startled,  or  embar- 
rassed in  reply.  He  could  unravel  a  sophism,  uncover  a 
weak  point,  and  develop  a  false  position  of  an  opponent, 
with  ease  and  power  ;  and  then  overwhelm  him  with  the  mo- 
mentum of  the  opposing  truth.  His  unmixed  sincerity  kept 
him  from  ever  using  the  arts  of  the  sophist  himself.  Hence 
he  never  descended  to  "  sap  and  mine  "  and  quibble  in  a  dis- 
cussion. He  attacked  the  arguments  of  an  opponent  openly; 
and  always  attempted  to  carry  his  fortifications  by  storm. 
From  this  course  he  seldom  or  never  departed. 

4.  As  a  speaker  he  was  clear  in  thought  and  utterance, 
rather  deliberate  than  rapid,  and  ahvays  self-possessed.  His 
command  of  language  was  copious,  and  accurate,  and  extreme- 
ly free  from  any  semblance  of  confusion.  Plis  style  was  racy 
and  sufficiently  adorned ;  yet,  rather  strong  than  beautiful. 
He  usually  addressed  the  intellect,  yet  had  power,  both  to 
rouse  the  passions  and  touch  the  heart.  When  aroused,  es- 
pecially in  debate,  he  was  eloquent  in  thought,  argument  and 
manner.  When  the  soul  seemed  to  radiate  from  the  counten- 
ance— flash  in  the  eye — burn  on  the  lip — and  tremble  on  the 
tongue,  the  spell-bound  hearer  was  enchained,  and  for  the 
time  being  held  under  the  mesmeric  influence  of  the  speaker, 
and  confessed  the  glowing  control  of  the  mind  that  entranced 
him. 

Of  his  moral  and  religious  character,  but  little  remains  to 
be  written.  Its  lineaments  are  interwoven  in  the  narrative  al- 
ready given.  His  confidence  in  and  obedience  to  God  have 
been  noticed.     Practically  and  theoretically  he  was  a  "  higher 


REV   JOSEPH   GORDON.  49 

law  "  man.  The  will  of  the  Lord  was  ever  with  him  the  par- 
amount consideration.  His  piety  was  the  religion  of  princi- 
ple ;  and  to  the  claims  of  duty  his  life  was  one  of  steady  and 
daily  obedience.  Possessing  talents  and  acquirements  with 
which  he  could,  and  most  men  would,  have  cleared  a  hand- 
some fortune,  he  died  poor.  The  only  legacy  that  he  left  his 
wife  and  son  was  his  stainless  character  and  good  name.  He 
considered  the  interests  of  the  poor,  and  looked  for  the  bles- 
sing promised  to  such  as  do. 

In  all  his  intercourse  with  men,  and  especially  as  his  edi- 
torial life  was  one  of  sharp  controversy ;  he  cultivated  and 
manifested  a  constant  love  of  truth.  His  aims,  motives  and 
actions  were  alike  transparent.  He  was  always  frank.  Few 
men  were  ever  more  free  from  cunning,  and  mere  manage- 
ment. Had  he  not  possessed  a  pretty  fair  insight  into  human 
character,  that  trait  would  have  made  him  often  the  dupe  of 
the  wiles  of  others.  He  was,  however,  reasonably  quick  in 
perceiving  in  others,  what  he  never  harbored  in  himself. 

The  last  trait  we  shall  mention  was  liis  deep  and  strong 
sympathies  and  affections.  These  were  more  powerful  and 
tender  than  a  partial  acquaintance  would  lead  any  one  to  sup- 
pose. In  the  hour  of  trial  and  separation  they  came  out  in 
full  manifestation.  As  a  watcher  at  the  bed  of  a  dying 
mother,  and  a  mourner  for  the  loss  of  two  infant  children, 
who  died  each  at  the  age  of  about  one  year — one  in  1850,  the 
other  in  1852;  his  depth  of  tenderness  was  intensely  called 
forth.  With  some  hesitancy  about  the  propriety  of  publish- 
ing a  letter  so  entirely  written  for  a  single  person,  the  writer 
has  concluded  to  give  a  short  extract  from  one  dated  April  2, 
1850,  after  the  death  of  his  little  daughter.  It  is  one  of  those 
productions  in  which  the  writer  unbosoms  himself,  and  we 
see  into  the  fountains  of  the  soul.  The  object  of  its  publica- 
tion is,  to  show  how  a  man  of  strength,  of  intellect  and  lofty 
moral  courage — who  fearlessly  met  opposition  and  relentless 
persecution  for  the  truth  of  God,  and  the  cause  of  humanity, 
could  at  the  same  time,  show  a  depth  of  parental  tenderness, 
that  few  experience.  After  describing  the  sickness  and  death 
of  his  child  he  adds : 

"  Thus  died  our  little  Mary.  To  us  she  was  very  lovely. 
She  was  too  gentle  and  timid  to  attract  the  notice  of  strangers, 
but  alone  with  us  she  was  sweet,  and  playful  and  good ;  and 
we  loved  her  all  the  more  tenderly  for  the  timidity  that  made 
her  cling  to  us  alone.  How  tenderly  we  loved  her,  they  alone 
can  know  who  have  lost  a  little  one  so  gentle  and  sweet  as  she 


50  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

was.  *  *  *         I  do  not  murmur  at  the  sad  loss, 

but  feel  as  well  as  know  that  all  is  right.  '  He  doeth  all 
things  well.'  Our  little  babe  that  nestled  a  little  more  than 
one  short  year  in  our  arms,  is  now  gathered  gently  as  a  lamb 
in  the  bosom  of  Jesus.  Her  suiferings  are  all  over.  She  can 
never  more  feel  pain  or  sorrow,  and  oh !  to  know  that  she  is 
now  infinitely  happy  is  enough.  She  was  beautiful  in  death. 
As  she  lay  in  her  little  cradle,  with  a  plain  white  dress,  and 
her  little  hands  and  bosom  filled  with  flowers — a  sweet  smile 
on  her  face — her  body  seemed  a  meet  emblem  of  her  pure 
and  gentle  spirit.  Death  was  divested  of  all  terror — all 
gloom.  It  was  like  a  quiet  sleep.  It  is  ours  to  suifer  and 
struggle  on  a  little  longer.  She  has  reached  home  before  us, 
and  awaits  in  her  robes  of  white  to  welcome  us  there.  God 
grant  that  we  may  be  ready  to  follow  when  our  time  comes  ; 
to  die  as  peacefully  and  sweetly  as  did  our  little  babe.  Life 
never  before  seemed  to  me  so  uncertain.  Death,  heaven,  and 
the  resurrection,  never  before  seemed  so  near  and  real  as  now. 
The  grave  seems  divested  of  all  gloom,  and  I  now  feel  that 
when  life's  '  fitful  dream  is  over,'  I  can  lie  down  there  as  to 
a  place  of  quiet  rest." 

In  his  oratory  he  generally  addressed  the  intellect  and  con- 
science, yet  he  easily  could  and  frequently  did  point  for  the 
heart,  and  stirred  the  deep  fountains  of  feeling.  This  power 
is  necessarily  based  on  personal  susceptibility.  One  incapa- 
ble of  the  exercise  of  tender  susceptibilities  can  not  reach 
and  stir  the  fountains  in  other  breasts,  and  start  the  tear  in 
other  eyes. 

We  here  close.  We  have  given  a  very  imperfect  portrait, 
but  truthful  as  far  as  it  goes,  of  as  good  and  true  a  man  as 
Heaven  usually  lends  to  earth.  Could  the  wishes  of  hundreds 
have  prevailed,  he  would  not  have  left  us  so  early  in  the  con- 
flict. His  eloquent  voice  would  yet  be  heard  cheering  on  the 
Free  Church  hosts  of  freedom.  His  powerful  pen  would  yet 
be  puissant  in  defending  right  and  exposing  wrong;  and 
urging  forward  the  reign  of  peace,  purity  and  righteousness. 
But  he  is  gone.  In  him  the  slave,  the  church,  the  world  has 
lost  a  friend,  and  no  man  has  lost  an  enemy. 

The  balance  of  this  humble  volume  will  be  his  own. 
"  Though  dead  he  yet  speaketh  ;"  but  speaks  as  one  from  the 
spirit  land. 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  5l 


WRITINGS    OF 

REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON 


Religion  and  Reform. 

True  religion  includes  all  genuine  reform.  The  Christian 
is,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  a  radical  reformer.  There  may 
be  a  measure  of  reform  without  religion,  but  there  can  be  no 
true  religion  without  thorough  reformation.  Thus  the  drun- 
kard may  become  habitually  sober,  without  becoming  con- 
verted, but  no  one  can  become  truly  religious  without  aban- 
doning all  open  vices.  True  religion  is  supreme  love  to  God, 
and  equal  love  to  man.  But  it  is  impossible  for  any  one  to 
love  God  with  his  whole  heart,  and  cherish  sins  which  God 
hates  ;  or  to  love  his  neighbor  as  himself,  and  practice  vices 
which  are  at  war  with  his  neighbor's  well-being.  Thus, 
supreme  love  to  God  will  purify  the  heart  of  secret  sins,  and 
leads  to  the  cultivation  of  inward  holiness,  while  love  to  man 
will  restrain  from  outward  crime,  and  promote  the  practice  of 
pure  benevolence.  Hence  the  true  Christian  is  a  genuine 
reformer.  To  reform  is  to  re-construct,  to  re-model,  to  re- 
form or  make  over  that  which  has  been  marred  or  broken. 
Man's  whole  nature,  physical,  mental,  social,  and  spiritual,  is 
marred  and  broken.  Man  is  a  ruin,  and  the  work  of  true 
reform  is  to  re-construct  his  shattered  powers,  and  form  them 
into  primitive  order  and  beauty.  Sin  is  the  great  disorganizer. 
It  is  sin  that  has  broken  down  this  temple  of  God,  the  human 
body  and  soul,  and  spread  ruin  and  disorder  over  all  its  fair 
proportions.  Hence  true  reform  is  to  forsake  sin,  to  break  its 
power,  to  undo  its  work  of  destruction ;  and  in  opposition  to 
it,  to  cultivate  and  attain  a  power  of  goodness  and  virtue. 
True  reformation  in  its  full  extent  is  to  gain  a  complete  vic- 
tory over  sin,  and  to  attain  to  the  love  and  practice  of  genuine 
love  and  holiness. 

Hence  the  reason  why  every  true  Christian  is  a  radical  re- 
former.    The  Christian  is  one  who  is  like  Christ.     His  heart 


52  LIFE    AJTD    WRITINGS    OF 

has  been  reclaimed  from  the  love  and  power  of  sin,  and  been 
filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost.  His  life  is  therefore,  hencefor- 
ward a  battle  with  sin.  He  sees  in  it  a  cause  of  infinite 
dishonor  to  God,  and  the  source  of  infinite  ruin  to  the  uni- 
verse. Hence  he  sympathizes  with  Christ  in  the  great  object 
of  his  mission  to  earth,  which  was  to  destroy  sin.  In  this 
sympathy  with  Christ  is  found  the  root  and  strength  of  every 
genuine  reformation. 

But  it  is  altogether  possible  for  men  to  be  too  religious  to  be 
genuine  reformers.  As  true  religion  embraces  true  reform  as 
a  part  of  itself,  so  false  religion  is  the  most  deadly  and  fatal 
enemy  of  genuine  reformation.  Fill  a  man's  soul  with  the 
religion  of  superstition,  of  forms  and  creeds,  or  of  mere  ex- 
citement, and  there  is  no  room  left  for  any  real  love  either  to 
God  or  man.  The  superstitious  man  is  one  whose  soul  ; 
under  the  power  of  a  slavish  and  crushing  dread  of  a  Supreme 
Being,  whom  it  regards  clothed  with  judgment  and  wrath. 
But  servile  fear  is  incompatible  with  love. 

The  being  that  is  feared,  whether  he  be  God,  man,  or  devil, 
is  sure  to  be  hated.  Hence  the  spring  of  all  purity  of  life, 
and  of  all  benevolent  eff"ort  is  wanting.  The  soul  becomes 
narrowed  and  shriveled  under  the  influence  of  this  degrading- 
fear. 

The  man  whose  religion  consists  in  periodic  fits  of  excite- 
ment lacks  the  firm  and  steady  principle  which  is  necessary  to 
nerve  and  sustain  the  reformer  in  an  earnest  grappling  with 
gigantic  social,  political,  or  moral  evils.  Hence  he  can  only 
be  relied  on  when  the  reformation  goes  by  excitement.  So 
long  as  it  can  be  urged  on  with  the  agency  of  large  crowds, 
exciting  speeches^  parades,  etc.,  he  will  shout  with  the  loudest, 
and  labor  with  great  zeal  and  energy.  But  the  hard  work  of 
all  reforms  is  to  be  done  before  it  reaches  that  point.  It  is 
when  over-spreading  and  popular  crimes  are  first  attacked  ; 
when  their  opposers  are  few,  weak,  and  despised,  and  their 
friends  are  many  and  popular,  that  the  real  strength  of  Chris- 
tian principle  is  tested.  The  man  of  excitement  is  never 
found  then  battling  with  the  heroic  few,  amid  persecution  and 
opposition  against  popular  and  rampant  systems  of  crime. 
He  will  very  likely  be  found  in  the  ranks  of  the  enemy. 

Again,  the  mere  formalist  in  religion  is  generally  too  selfish 
to  make  any  eftorts  or  sacrifices  for  the  good  of  his  race.  This 
class  generally  contains  the  stufi"  of  which  "old  fogies"  are 
made.  They  are  the  well-to-do  men  of  society  ;  the  conser- 
vatives, who  dread  change  and  innovations  as  the  Pandora's 


REV.   JOSEPH    GORDON.  53 

box,  filled  witli  every  imaginable  evil  and  calamity.  Their 
special  horror  is  any  thing  which  interrupts  the  steady  flow  of 
golden  streams  into  their  coffers,  and  which  interferes  with 
their  growing  ''fat  and  sleek."  The  chief  end  of  their  life 
is  physical  comfort,  and  social  respectability.  Hence  they  are 
always  found  arrayed  in  solid  phalanx  against  every  reforma- 
tion. It  matters  nothing  to  them  that  slavery,  or  drunken- 
ness, or  licentiousness,  or  any  stupendous  social  and  moral 
evil  may  devour  hecatombs  of  the  young  and  fair  and  lovely 
at  a  meal,  and  like  the  apocalyptic  dragon,  "draw  down  the 
third  part  of  the  stars  of  heaven."  If  they  can  draw  fat  divi- 
dends, if  their  stock  can  be  kept  above  par,  and  their  purses 
grow  longer  and  heavier  each  day,  it  is  all  they  desire.  Their 
religion  is  in  harmony  with  their  ruling  selfishness;  and  the 
cause  of  reform  finds  in  them  its  most  steadfast  and  uniform 
opposers. 

From  these  principles  we  may  derive  a  test  by  which  to  try 
any  system  of  religious  agencies.  Do  they  harmonize  with, 
promote,  all  true  reformation  ?  If  so,  it  may  be  safely  con- 
cluded that  they  are  in  unity  with  the  gospel  and  spirit  of 
Christ.  Do  they,  on  the  contrary,  tend  to  array  those  under 
their  influence  against  vital  reforms,  or  to  render  them  indif- 
ferent? Then  are  they  essentially  anti-Christian.  It  is  by 
the  application  of  this  test,  that  we  have  lost  faith  in  the 
genuineness  of  many  modern  revivals.  We  have  often  no- 
ticed that  men  pass  through  scenes  of  religious  excitement, 
and  come  out  almost  totally  indifferent,  if  not  utterly  opposed 
to  the  real  work  of  the  Christian — the  renovation  of  his  own 
heart  and  life  and  of  the  world.  We  do  not,  indeed,  as  a 
general  thing,  find  them  any  more  ready  than  before  to  labor 
earnestly  for  the  salvation  of  the  drundard,  the  deliverance  of 
the  slave,  or  the  conversion  of  the  heathen.  The  probability 
is  that  they  will  be  so  filled  with  sectarian  zeal  as  to  have  no 
heart  for  works  of  genuine  Christian  love. 

It  is  a  standing  remark  of  the  world,  and  one  of  the  truth  of 
which  there  is  no  question,  that  the  existence,  and  the  neces- 
sity for  temperance,  anti-slavery,  moral  reform,  and  other 
benevolent  societies  are  a  standing  reproach  on  the  Church. 
They  are  organized  to  do  the  very  work  for  which  Christ  insti- 
tuted his  Church  ;  and  it  is  because  the  Church  is  faithless  to 
her  mission  that  these  voluntary  associations  are  necessary. 
It  is  no  true  answer  to  this  assertion  to  say  that  members  of 
the  church  are  among  the  most  active  members  of  these  socie- 
ties.    The  Church  should  do  this  in  her  qrfjanized  cwpacUy. 


54  LIFE   AND    WKITINGS    OF 

Every  local  church  should  be  a  temperance,  an  anti-slavery, 
a  moral  reform  society,  by  virtue  of  her  divine  constitution. 
But  so  far  are  the  great  majority  of  modern  churches  from 
being  so,  that  the  most  bitter  opponents  of  all  true  reforms  are 
found  in  their  pale ;  and  the  aggregate  influence  of  the 
churches  is  against  reform.  Hence  the  reformers  within  the 
Church  must  be  made  so,  not  by  the  Church,  but  in  spite  of 
its  influence.  Thus  the  divinely  appointed  instrumentality 
for  reforming  the  world,  is  robbed  of  the  honor  which  it  should 
reap  in  the  fulfillment  of  its  great  and  glorious  mission. 


We  should  be  Men  and  Women  of  Devoted  Piety. 

There  are  many  reasons  for  this  : 

1.  In  the  first  place,  true  reform  can  only  be  efi"ected  by 
the  power  of  God.  The  best  system  of  human  agencies  ever 
devised,  is  utterly  powerless  without  his  blessing.  His  spirit 
and  truth  alone  can  regenerate  the  human  soul,  they  alone 
can  truly  reform  the  character ;  and  the  reformation  of  the 
world  can  only  be  efi'ected  by  the  reformation  of  each 
individual  man  and  woman  in  the  world.  This  being  true, 
human  efi'ort  in  this  work  can  succeed  only  so  far  as  it 
takes  hold  of  divine  strength.  While  the  means  are  put  into 
the  hands  of  men,  the  efl&cient  power  is  of  God.  But  only 
the  man  of  piety  can  lay  hold  of  the  arm  of  Omnipotence  for 
this  end.  A  truly  pious  man  is  one  who  has  sought  and  ob- 
tained the  pardon  of  sins  through  the  atonement  of  Jesus 
Christ ;  who  loves  and  obeys  God  ;  who  tries  to  do  all  the 
good  he  can  ;  and  who  is  a  man  of  faith  and  prayer.  It  is  to 
this  man  that  God  promises  to  look  ;  it  is  upon  the  labors  of 
such  that  he  pours  out  a  blessing.  Only  he  who  trusts  God 
can  look  to  him  for  aid  in  doing  good.  For  "  to  the  wicked 
God  says,  what  hast  thou  to  do  to  declare  my  statutes,  or  that 
thou  shouldst  take  my  covenant  into  thy  mouth  ?  " 

No  true  reformation  can  be  greatly  promoted  without  the 
agency  of  prayer.  For  the  aid  of  his  spirit  in  converting  and 
reforming  the  world,  God  says  he  will  be  inquired  of  by  the 
House  of  Israel.  Only  as  God's  servants  feel  their  depen- 
dence on  him,  and  look  to  him  in  believing  prayer,  can  they 
hope  to  be  successful  in  doing  his  work.  That  reformation 
whjch  ignore  this  iRstyumentality,  must  fail.     But  it  is  only 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  55 

the  truly  pious  man  who  can  pray  in  faith.  He  alone  who 
loves,  trusts  and  obeys  God,  can  offer  acceptable  and  prevail- 
ing prayer. 

2.  Again  reformers  should  be  men  of  ardent  piety  because 
none  others  can  work  in  harmony  with  God  in  saving  the 
world.  The  secret  of  all  success  in  doing  good  depends  on 
this  harmony.  All  the  plans,  truths,  principles  and  institu- 
tions necessary  for  the  reformation  of  the  world,  have  been 
provided  and  revealed  by  Jehovah.  He  furnishes  each  one 
of  his  moral  soldiers  a  complete  suit  of  spiritual  armor.  He 
has  drafted  a  perfect  chart  of  the  work  to  be  done  ;  has  given 
a  full  description  of  that  temple  of  holiness  and  love  which 
his  children  are  to  labor  in  building  up.  The  only  work  man 
has  to  do  in  reforming^the  earth  is  to  use  the  instrumentalities 
which  God  has  provided  for  the  redemption  of  the  world  of 
mankind,  in  humble  reliance  on  divine  aid.  But  it  is  evident 
that  none  but  the  pious  man  can  thus  work  in  harmony  with 
God.  This  is  so  because  he  alone  is  himself  4:i  harmony  with 
his  Maker.  He  alone  has  had  his  will,  and  principles,  and 
purposes  brought  into  unison  with  the  will  of  God.  The  un- 
converted are  at  enmity  with  him.  Their  characters  are  dis- 
cordant with  his.  Their  aims  and  purposes  are  in  conflict 
with  his  designs,  and  hence  they  are  of  course  unprepared  to 
labor  for  him  in  harmony  with  his  plans. 

3.  A  third  reason  why  reformers  should  be  men  of  devoted 
piety,  is  that  none  others  will  endure  the  persecutions  and 
trials  which  are  the  lot  of  true  reformers.  To  reform  is  to  re- 
model the  human  character,  and  all  the  laws,  customs,  and 
institutions  of  man  which  are  sinful.  This  work  of  re-con- 
struction frequently  requires  the  destruction  of  existing  habits 
and  institutions.  Thus  before  the  human  soul  can  be  imbued 
with  the  principle  of  holiness,  its  native  depravity  must  be 
destroyed.  Before  righteous  laws  and  governments,  and  pure 
churches  can  be  established,  those  which  are  oppressive  and 
corrupt  must  be  overthrown.  Before  holy  and  benevolent 
customs  and  habits  can  be  introduced  among  men,  those  which 
are  vile  and  selfish  must  be  rooted  out.  But  this  work  of 
overturning  existing  principles,  laws,  customs,  and  institutions 
is  one  which  excites  the  fiercest  opposition  of  the  wicked. 
Hence  he  who  engages  in  it  must  often  expect  the  severest 
persecution.  His  motives  will  be  misrepresented  ;  his  char- 
acter will  be  slandered  ;  his  plans  will  be  ridiculed  ;  and  some- 
times his  person  and  life  exposed  to  danger  and  abuse.     This 


56  LIFE   AND    WRITINGS   OF 

has  been  the  lot  of  reformers  in  all  past  ages,  and  it  is  their 
lot  still. 

Now,  to  endure  this  opposition  patiently,  the  reformer  needs 
a  large  measure  of  God's  grace  in  his  heart.  He  needs  a 
strong,  unwavering,  child-like  faith  in  God,  and  a  deep  bap- 
tism into  the  firm,  meek,  loving,  gentle  spirit  of  Christ.  But 
these  are  the  characteristics  of  the  truly  pious  man. 

4.  Once  more,  reformers  should  be  persons  of  devoted  piety, 
because  their  teachings  will  be  powerful  for  good  only  so  far 
as  their  example  corresponds  with  them.  It  is  a  well  under- 
stood principle  of  human  nature  that  example  impresses  more 
deeply  than  precept.  No  matter  how  great  and  important 
may  be  the  truths  taught  us  by  a  fellow-man,  if  his  life  is  a 
violation  of  the  claims  of  those  truths,  we  reject  him  and  his 
teachings.  He  who  lives  a  truth  is  its  mightiest  preacher.  He 
whose  example  is  a  standing  testimony  against  sin,  is  its  most 
effective  opposer.  He  whose  life  is  the  exemplification  of  pure 
benevolence,  is  the  most  radical  reformer.  But  to  live  the 
truth,  to  forsake  sin,  and  to  practice  pure  benevolence,  are  the 
works  of  the  sincerely  pious. 

We  may  draw  many  practical  inferences  from  these  prin- 
ciples :  It  follows  from  them,  for  example,  that  he  who  re- 
bukes slavery  should  not  be  hard  and  oppressive  to  his  hired 
laborers;  should  not  be  grasping  and  dishonest  in  his  deal- 
ings; should  not  cheat  his  neighbor  in  a  bargain.  He  who 
reproves  the  drunkard  should  not  sell  his  corn  to  the  distiller  ; 
should  not  rent  his  buildings  to  the  grog-seller ;  should  not 
himself  be  a  wine-bibbcr.  He  who  preaches  against  the  un- 
fruitful works  of  darkness  done  in  heathen  lands,  should  not 
be  a  member  of  secret  conclaves,  whose  midnight  revelings 
bear  close  resemblance  to  the  mysteries  of  a  heathen  temple. 
He  in  brief,  who  labors  for  the  reformation  of  the  world, 
should  reform  his  own  heart  and  life.  "  Let  your  light  so 
shine  before  men,  that  they  may  see  your  good  works,  and 
glorify  your  Father  which  is  in  Heaven." 


Mission  of  the  Free  Presbyterian  Church. 

The  mission  of  every  true  church  is  two-fold.  First,  gen- 
eral; second,  special  or  particular.  The  general  mission  of 
every   true  church  is  to   "go  into  all  the  world,  and  preach 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  57 

the  gospel  to  every  creature."  To  be  "the  salt  of  the  earth  " 
and  "  the  light  of  the  world :  "  To  lift  up  Christ  in  her 
teachings  and  in  the  holy  lives  of  her  members,  that  all  men 
will  be  drawn  unto  him  ;  attracted  irresistibly  by  the  moral 
power  and  surpassing  beauty  of  his  character,  as  they  are 
exhibited  and  exemplified  in  his  Church. 

The  special  mission  of  any  particular  church  grows  out  of 
the  peculiar  circumstances  in  which  she  is  placed  ;  and  con- 
sists in  the  specific  application  of  the  gospel  to  the  most 
prevalent  sins  and  the  most  pressing  wants  of  the  age  and 
nation  in  which  she  exists.  The  Church  is  God's  witness  for 
truth,  and  against  wrong ;  and  her  particular  duty  in  any  age 
is  to  witness  against  the  most  common  and  popular  iniquities, 
and  in  behalf  of  the  truths  that  are  the  most  despised  and  re- 
jected in  the  age  in  which  she  lives.  It  is  of  the  duty  of  our 
church  in  this  last  respect  that  we  wish  now  to  speak. 

The  great  want  of  the  present  age  must  be  obvious  to  the 
most  casual  observer.  It  is  a  living  practical  faith  in  the 
religion  of  Christ,  as  the  power  that  is  to  reform  the  world 
and  govern  the  entire  life  and  actions  of  men.  Christianity 
as  professed  and  practiced  by  the  mass  of  nominal  Christen- 
dom, is  an  abstraction.  It  is  something  to  be  worn  as  a  Sab- 
bath garment,  and  thrown  aside  during  the  rest  of  the  week. 

The  idea  that  it  contains  a  system  of  laws  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  whole  life,  has  become  almost  obsolete.  The 
consequence  is  that  the  Church,  failing  to  embody  and  ex- 
emplify the  religion  of  Christ,  in  this  direction,  has  lost,  to  a 
great  extent,  her  power  to  restrain  men  from  sin,  and  to 
impress  upon  their  hearts  the  constraining  and  converting 
power  of  the  gospel. 

As  the  most  prevalent  sin  of  our  age  and  nation  we  do  not 
name  slavery,  or  drunkenness,  or  licentiousness,  or  any  one 
particular  practice,  but  that  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of 
them  all — practical  Atheism.  These  various  developmtjuts  of 
depravity  are  only  the  working  out  of  this  radical  sin  of  the 
human  heart. 

The  man  who  makes  merchandize  of  God's  image,  or  de- 
bases his  own  soul  and  body  by  the  indulgence  of  low  and 
sinful  propensities,  has  lost  a  sense  of  God's  presence,  and  of 
his  government  of  the  world. 

The  Apostle  names,  as  the  cause  of  all  the  hideous  crimes 
and  abominations  of  the  heathen  of  his  day,  the  fact  that 
"they  did  not  like  to  retain  God  in  their  knowledge;  "  and 
the  Prophet  says  of  the  most  abandoned  sinners  of  his  age,  that 

6 


58  LIFE    AND    WRITINGS   OF 

they  said  in  their  hearts  :  "  The  Lord  ■will  not  do  good,  neither 
will  he  do  evil." 

The  mission  of  ours,  as  of  every  true  church,  is,  therefore, 
to  bear  a  practical  testimony  against  this  prevalent  Atheism, 
and  against  the  wide-spread  and  abounding  iniquities  to  which 
it  gives  rise.  This  can  best  be  done  by  exhibiting  in  her 
teachings  and  in  the  lives  of  her  members  the  doctrine  of 
God's  special  government  of  the  world ;  and  by  manifesting 
in  all  their  actions  a  sense  of  the  divine  presence,  and  of  the 
constraining  power  of  a  belief  in  the  supremacy  of  his  law 
and  kingdom.  Let  the  world  see  by  the  conduct  of  a  church 
that  she  is  governed  by  a  principle  which  chains  every  action 
to  the  throne  of  God,  her  power  for  good  will  be  mighty 
indeed, 

God  has  wisely  adapted  the  organization  of  the  Church  to 
the  successful  accomplishment  of  the  great  object  for  which 
he  has  formed  her. 

A  bond  of  closest  union,  and,  consequently,  an  element  of 
strength,  is  found  in  that  brotherly  love  which  is  one  essential 
trait  of  Christian  character.  In  the  diversity  of  gifts  be- 
stowed by  his  Spirit,  he  has  provided  for  the  discharge  of 
various  and  diverse  duties.  The  teachings,  sacraments,  forms 
of  worship  and  orders  of  officers,  are  all  adapted  to  enforce 
and  impress  the  truth,  and  to  give  it  a  living  power  in  the 
liearts  of  God's  people.  As  different  forms  of  church  order 
and  government  have  been  adopted,  each  denomination  is 
bound  to  show  some  peculiar  excellence  in  that  which  it  has 
embraced.  The  propriety  or  impropriety  of  denominational 
divisions  among  the  people  of  God  is  not  the  question. 
Perhaps  in  the  present  state  of  the  world  such  divisions  are 
inevitable. 

But  while  such  is  the  case  every  Christian  is  bound  to  pro- 
fess Christ  in  that  branch  of  the  Church  which  he  regards  as 
the  purest  in  its  doctrines  and  practice,  and  which  he  believes 
to  conform  most  fully  to  the  Scripture  model  of  government 
and  order.  By  his  connection  with  a  particular  church  every 
man  does  really  profess  to  regard  it  as  nearest  the  right 
standard. 

Now  the  world  asks  and  expects  a  practical  exhibition  of 
these  peculiar  excellencies  which  every  member  professes  to 
regard  as  embodied  in  his  church. 

These  thoughts  suggest  an  important  part  of  the  special 
mission  of  the  Free  Presbyterian  Church.  Its  members  have 
a  warm  and  decided  attachment  to  their  own  order  and  form 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  69 

of  government.  They  believe  it  to  come  nearest  to  the 
Scripture  standard.  They  think  it  best  combines  that  com- 
pact union  which  is  essential  to  strength,  with  that  individual 
freedom  which  is  necessary  to  the  full  and  harmonious  devel- 
opment of  Christian  character.  Thej  hold  these  views  in 
entire  charity  for  other  denominations.  The  very  fact  that 
they  prize  and  love  their  own  order,  makes  them  tolerant  to 
the  conscientious  preferences  of  others.  But  the  fact  of  this 
preference  to  the  form  and  order  of  their  own  church,  im- 
poses upon  them  the  duty  of  giving  the  world  a  practical 
exhibition  of  what  they  regard  as  their  peculiar  excellency. 
They  ought  to  show  to  the  world  that  Presbyterianism  makes 
the  highest  style  of  man.  They  ought  to  show  that  instead 
of  the  mere  badge  of  a  party  or  sect,  it  is  the  fullest  embodi- 
ment of  the  spirit  and  principles  of  the  Christian  religion; 
and  that  those  who  are  imbued  with  its  doctrines  are  thereby 
baptized  into  the  spirit  of  universal  love  and  benevolence, 
and  peculiarly  fitted  for  every  good  word  and  work. 

Presbyterianism  has  won  for  itself,  in  past  yeai's,  a  place 
among  the  reforming  powers  of  the  earth.  It  has  uniformly 
until  now  been  found  on  the  side  of  freedom  and  right — the 
fast  friend  of  civil  liberty  and  of  the  poor  and  oppressed.  It 
has  brought  forth  and  matured  many  a  heroic  apostle  of  lib- 
erty, whose  names  the  world  will  not  willingly  let  die.  In 
view  of  its  glorious  achievements  in  the  past  it  is  melancholy 
to  find  the  Presbyterianism  of  this  age,  as  embodied  in  the 
Old  and  New  School  General  Assemblies,  in  close  league  with 
the  worst  tyrants  with  whom  the  world  has  ever  been  cursed. 
These  bodies  are  among  the  firmest  pillars  of  that  stupendous 
system  of  despotism  in  this  country,  which  is  now  running 
riot  over  the  crushed  liberties  of  the  American  people.  They 
have  disregarded  the  hallowed  names  and  memories  of  the 
past,  and  done  what  they  could  to  make  that  system,  which 
has  hitherto  been  identified  with  many  a  heroic  struggle  for 
civil  and  religious  freedom,  the  synonym  of  oppression  and 
infamy. 

In  view  of  these  facts  it  is  a  part  of  the  mission  of  the 
Free  Presbyterian  Church  to  rescue  the  name  it  bears  from 
the  foul  disgrace  of  being  reckoned  the  handmaid  of  op- 
pression. Let  her  voice  be  heard  in  all  her  pulpits  in  stern 
reprobation  of  the  recent  outrage  perpetrated  by  Congress, 
and  of  the  other  schemes  of  the  propagandists  of  slavery. 
Let  her  testimony  against  this  giant  iniquity  be  rendered  still 
more  pointed  and  emphatic.     Let  her  speak  through  pulpit, 


60  LIFE   AND    WRITINGS    OF 

press  and  ballot  box  to  our  godless  rulers  in  such  tones  of 
rebuke  and  warning  as  John  Knox  was  wont  to  utter  in  the 
ears  of  kings.  Above  all,  let  the  lives  of  all  her  ministers 
and  members  be  living  epistles  in  which  the  world  shall  read 
lessons  of  the  living  power  of  Christianity  in  controlling  all 
the  actions  and  relations  of  life. 

In  fulfilling  this  mission  it  is  pleasant  to  expect  the  coop- 
eration of  the  other  branches  of  the  Presbyterian  family  that 
occupy  the  same  ground  on  the  great  moral  questions  of  the 
age.  Let  our  church  consecrate  herself  to  this  great  work. 
Let  her,  by  faithful  believing  prayer,  secure  the  influences  of 
the  Holy  Spirit ;  and  she  will  accomplish  a  work  that  will 
glorify  God  and  bless  the  world. 


What  Can  I  do  to  Bring  the  World  to  God. 

You  can  do  much.  First  and  chiefly,  you  can  give  your- 
self to  God  if  you  have  not  done  so  already.  The  world  of 
mankind  is  made  up  of  individuals.  You  are  one  of  the 
separate  human  beings  who,  taken  in  the  aggregate,  consti- 
tute the  world  of  men  and  women.  If  each  one  will  give 
himself  to  Christ  the  work  will  be  done.  The  reign  of  peace 
and  love  will  begin.  The  Saviour  will  see  of  the  travail  of  his 
soul  and  be  satisfied.  The  hosanna  of  the  world  redeemed 
will  roll  round  the  earth.  And  this  is  the  work  which  every 
one  must  do  for  himself  You  alone,  his  grace  enabling  you, 
can  consecrate  your  own  soul  to  Christ.  You  must  repent, 
believe,  love  and  obey  for  yourself  No  one  else  can  do  this 
for  you ;  no  man  can  by  any  means  redeem  his  brother,  or 
give  to  God  a  ransom  for  him. 

But  if  you  have  already  given  yourself  to  God,  you  can,  as 
the  first  step  toward  bringing  others  to  him,  renew  the  con- 
secration. You  can  make  it  more  complete  and  unreserved. 
In  looking  over  your  course  since  you  first  tasted  that  the 
Lord  is  gracious,  you  can  see,  doubtless,  that  in  many  things 
you  have  come  short.  The  world  has  sometimes  divided  your 
heart  with  God.  Satan  and  the  flesh  have  sometimes  got  the 
better  of  you.  Often,  perhaps,  you  feel  that  you  have  been 
very  far  from  doing  what  you  ought  and  might  have  done  to 
bring  sinners  to  the  Saviour.  Repent,  therefore,  and  do  your 
first  works.  Come  again  to  the  fountain,  wash  and  be  clean. 
Seek  a  fresh  baptism  into  the  very  spirit  and  temper  of  Jesus. 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  ~  61 

Do  this,  and  you  will  be  ready  in  the  second  place  to  set  such 
an  example  before  sinners  as  will  bring  them  to  Christ.  A 
pure  example  is  the  mightiest  agency  in  drawing  men  to  Jesus. 
This,  by  Grod's  grace,  you  can  set  before  the  world.  You  can 
show  by  a  life  of  unsullied  integrity,  of  earnest  practical 
benevolence,  and  of  holy  christian  love,  how  pure  and  blessed 
is  that  gospel  that  brings  forth  such  fruits.  You  can  be  a 
living  epistle  wherein  all  who  see  you  may  read  how  rightous, 
holy,  loving  and  pure  is  the  faith  of  Christ.  Doubt  not  that 
if  your  own  life  is  true  to  the  Saviour,  you  will  be  the  means 
of  drawing  others  to  him. 

In  the  third  place  you  can  speak  a  word  of  warning  and  in- 
vitation to  this  and  to  that  impenitent  sinner  whom  you  meet 
in  your  daily  walks.  You  will  meet  some  who  expect  this  of 
you.  Their  consciences  have  been  pierced  with  the  arrows  of 
truth.  They  are  weary  and  heavy  laden  with  sin.  They  long 
to  come  to  Jesus  for  rest.  But  they  tremble  and  shrink,  and 
fear  to  come.  A  word  of  kindly  encouragement  is  just  what 
they  need  to  bring  them  to  the  foot  of  the  cross.  That  word 
you  can  speak.  If  you  have  no  words  of  your  own  you  can 
repeat  the  ineffably  tender  and  beautiful  words  of  Jesus : 
"  Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I 
will  give  you  rest." 

But  some  sinners  you  fear  will  scorn  your  words  of  warn- 
ing and  entreaty.  Then  for  them,  and  for  all,  you  can 
wrestle  with  God  in  prayer.  His  grace  which  was  sufficient 
to  humble  a  Saul  of  Tarsus  and  save  a  dying  thief,  can  sub- 
due the  hardest  heart.  That  grace  is  bestowed  in  answer  to 
prayer,  and  the  fervent,  effectual  prayer  of  the  righteous  man 
availeth  much. 

Dear  reader,  will  you  begin  to  work  for  God?  The  sands 
of  life  are  running  out.  The  shadows  lengthen  upon  the 
plain,  and  ere  long  your  sun  of  existence  will  set.  If  you 
would  have  its  setting  cloudless  and  serene,  then  be  diligent 
for  God.  Work  while  the  day  lasts,  for  the  night  cometh  in 
which  no  man  can  work. 


What  is  Necessary  to  the  Efficiency  of  the  Church, 
IN  Doing  Good  ? 

This  is  an  important  question.     The  Church   is  God's  in- 
strumentality for  the  salvation  of  the  world.     It  is  the  salt  of 


62  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

the  earth,  and  the  light  of  the  world.  It  is  therefore  of  the 
highest  importance  to  know  what  is  essential  to  the  efficiency 
of  the  Church  in  the  great  work  to  which  she  is  appointed, 
and  how  her  moral  power  may  be  increased  to  the  utmost. 

It  is  a  common  answer  to  this  question  to  say  that  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  Church  depends  on  the  presence  and  power  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  This  reply  is  true,  but  it  is  not  sufficient. 
God  pours  out  his  Spirit  in  accordance  with  fixed  and  certain 
laws  ;  and  ihe  Church  must  be  in  the  right  position  to  receive 
the  divine  influence.  God  is  always  ready  to  pour  down  his 
Holy  Spirit.  Men  are  not  straitened  in  him,  but  in  them- 
selves. But  only  when  his  Church  comes  up  to  her  duty, 
and  is  prepared  to  receive  the  divine  influence,  can  he  con- 
sistently bestow  it. 

The  practical  view  of  the  question  then,  is  in  the  light  of 
human  agency.  If  the  Church  does  her  part,  she  need  never 
doubt  that  God  will  do  his.  So  far,  then,  as  human  instru- 
mentality is  concerned,  the  two  essentials  of  an  efficient 
church  are  a  faithful  ministry  and  a  devoted  membership. 

By  a  faithful  ministry,  we  mean  a  ministry  that  will  preach 
the  whole  truth  of  God,  and  that  will  exemplify  it  in  their 
lives.  Every  word  of  God  is  pure.  All  Scripture  is  given 
by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is  profitable  for  doctrine,  for  re- 
proof, for  instruction  in  righteousness.  To  preach  God's 
word  is  the  business  of  the  ministry.  To  this  they  are  set 
apart  as  their  peculiar  calling.  And  they  are  bound  to  de- 
clare the  whole  counsel  of  God ;  to  preach  all  the  truth. 
God  knows  what  truth  the  world  needs,  and  the  fact  that  he 
has  revealed  a  truth,  is  an  all-sufficient  reason  why  his  mes- 
sengers should  proclaim  it  to  the  world.  To  suppress  any 
part  of  divine  revelation,  is  to  set  up  our  judgment  in  oppo- 
sition to  Jehovah's.  To  hold  back  any  portion  of  revealed 
truth,  for  fear  of  ofiending  the  prejudices  of  men,  is  to  prove 
faithless  to  our  trust.  The  fact  that  truth  is  unpalatable,  is 
the  strongest  reason  why  it  should  be  faithfully  proclaimed, 
because  it  is  proof  positive  that  men  are  living  in  violation  of 
its  claims.  But  for  God's  ambassadors  to  withhold  the  truth 
for  that  reason,  is  necessarily  off'ensive  to  God,  and  is  an 
abundant  reason  why  they  should  not  expect  his  blessing  on 
their  labors. 

The  whole  truth  of  God  is  needed  to  make  a  symmetrical 
and  healthy  Christian,  just  as  a  whole  diet  is  needed  to  make 
a  vigorous  body.  Unless  all  the  elements  of  nutrition  which 
enter  into  the  composition  of  the  human    body,  are  supplied 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.-  63 

in  the  diet  of  the  child,  its  growth  will  be  distorted,  and  its 
body  will  be  imperfect.  So  unless  the  whole  truth  of  God, 
which  is  necessary  to  form  a  whole  Christian,  is  supplied  as 
the  spiritual  diet  of  the  convert,  he  can  not  grow  up  to  the 
stature  of  a  perfect  man  in  Christ. 

But  it  is  not  enough  for  the  ministry  merely  to  preach  the 
whole  truth.  They  must  feel  its  quickening  power  in  their 
own  souls,  and  exemplify  it  in  their  lives.  They  must  them- 
selves practice  the  duties  they  enjoin  on  others.  They  must 
shun  the  sins  they  condemn  ;  and  walk  in  the  path  they  point 
out  to  others.  When  they  inculcate  the  duty  of  benevolence, 
they  must  themselves  set  the  example  of  giving  as  God  has 
prospered  them ;  and  when  they  teacii  self-denial,  they  must 
take  up  the  cross.  It  will  avail  but  little  to  preach  the  whole 
truth  of  God,  if  the  life  of  the  preacher  does  not  exhibit  its 
constraining  and  sanctifying  power. 

A  devoted  membership  is  not  less  essential  to  the  efficiency 
of  the  Church,  than  a  faithful  ministry.  It  will  be  in  vain 
that  ministers  will  preach  and  pray,  if  the  members  are  cold 
and  lifeless.  The  Church  stands  between  the  ministry  and 
the  unconverted.  They  will  either  receive,  intensity  and  re- 
flect upon  the  world  the  rays  of  light  and  heat  which  emanate 
from  the  pulpit,  or  they  will  absorb  and  quench  them.  The 
Church  will  be  either  a  wall  of  fire  to  throw  the  intense 
brightness  of  God's  truth  over  the  world,  or  it  will  be  a 
mountain  of  ice  to  absorb  its  heat,  and  yet  will  itself  derive 
no  warmth  therefrom. 

Every  Christian  should  be  a  missionary ;  should  feel  that 
he  has  a  mission  to  fulfill  in  the  service  of  the  Saviour.  It 
may  be  a  mission  to  a  foreign  land,  but  it  is,  in  a  majority  of 
eases,  to  the  neglected  and  impenitent  around  his  own  door. 
That  mission,  no  matter  who  are  its  objects,  is  to  make  known 
in  word  and  action  the  truths  of  Christianity.  It  is  by  this 
influence  as  much  as  any  other,  that  the  gospel  advances  in 
the  world.  It  is  compared  to  leaven,  which  works  quietly  and 
unseen,  but  actively  and  mightily,  till  the  whole  mass  is  per- 
vaded by  its  influence.  This  figure  represents  the  silent  but 
mighty  power  of  Christian  principle,  as  put  forth  in  the  faith- 
ful labors  and  holy  lives  of  Christians.  The  kingdom  of  God 
cometh  not  with  observation  or  outward  show.  It  is  not  in 
noisy,  ostentatious,  spasmodic  efi"orts,  that  God  requires  his 
people  to  expend  their  strength,  but  in  the  calm,  constant,  un- 
tiring exhibition  of  a  godly  example,  and  in  the  putting  forth 


G4  LIFE   AND    WRITINUS   OF 

of  daily  exertions  to  do  good,  though  they  may  be  but 
humble. 

Flora  all  this  it  follows  that  the  efficiency  of  the  Church  de- 
pends greatly  on  each  member  individually  devoting  himself 
soul  and  body  to  the  work  of  the  Lord.  If  members  of  the 
Church  feel  that  all  direct  eff'orts  for  the  conversion  of  the 
world  should  be  confined  to  the  ministers,  and  officers  of  the 
Church,  that  they  are  hired  by  the  congregation  to  do  this 
work,  and  that  private  members  do  their  whole  duty  when 
they  employ  a  minister  for  this  purpose,  the  cause  of  God 
can  not  prosper.  Men  can  not  serve  God  in  this  respect  by 
prosy.  They  can  not  hire  others  to  speak  to  the  impenitent 
the  words  which  they  ought  to  speak  themselves,  and  to  set  the 
holy  example  before  them  which  they  themselves  are  bound 
to  exhibit.  The  gift  of  God  can  not  be  purchased  with 
money.  As  each  one  must  give  account  of  himself  to  God, 
so  each  one  will  be  held  responsible  for  all  the  good  that  God 
has  put  it  into  his  power  to  do,  individually, 

When  the  Church  of  God  is  composed  of  sucih  members; 
when  each  one  sets  himself  to  cultivute  his  own  part  of  the 
vineyard,  and  then  all  come  together  with  one  heart  for  the 
common  and  united  eff'orts  which  the  whole  Church  puts  forth, 
the  world  will  witness  such  triumphs  of  the  gospel  as  have 
been  but  ijirely  exhibited  in  the  past. 


Have  Faith  in  God, 

There  are  moments  when  the  spirit  of  the  Christian  grows 
weary  of  the  burdens  of  life.  Many  causes  there  may  be-for 
this.  Sometimes,  perhaps,  he  may  find  an  old  sinful  appetite, 
with  which  he  had  long  struggled,  and  which  he  had  thought 
was  finally  subdued,  start  suddenly  into  life  under  the  power 
of  strong  temptation.  He  feels,  consequently,  discouraged. 
The  battle  with  his  besetting  sin  is  to  be  fought  over 
again.  The  ground  which  he  thought  firm  beneath  him,  sud- 
denly trembles  and  grows  unsteady.  The  weary  work  is  all 
to  do  over.  Harder  than  he  had  thought,  is  the  duty  of  self- 
conquest  and  self-control.  His  spirit  sinks  within  him  at  the 
thought  of  past  failure  and  of  future  conflict;  and  not  strange 
is  it  if,  in  his  despondency,  he  is  led  to  doubt  the  reality  of 
his  convert-ion.  Can  it  be,  he  asks  himself,  that  a  really  re- 
newed heart   can   contain   so  much   latent  corruption  ?     Can 


REV.    JOSEPH   GORDON.  65 

the  Holy  Spirit  have  ever  made  that  heart  his  temple,  where 
so  much  depravity  still  lurks?  Has  he  not  deceived  himself? 
Is  not  hia  hope  vain  ?  And  will  it  not  prove,  in  the  end,  as 
"  the  spider's  web,  or  the  givinpj  up  of  the  ghost?" 

Something  like  this  is,  doubtless,  at  some  period  of  their 
course,  the  experience  of  many  Christians.  At  such  times 
how  appropriate  to  their  case  the  exhortation  of  Christ  to  his 
disciples  :  "  Have  faith  in  God."  Has  God  ever  revealed 
himself  to  the  Christian's  soul  as  the  God  of  mercy  and  sal- 
vation ?  Then  will  he  not  leave  his  work  undone.  He  has 
promised  that  he  will  never  leave  nor  forsake  them  ;  that  he 
will  perfect  that  which  concerns  them  ;  aid  that  he  will  final- 
ly bring  them  oflfmore  than  conquerors  through  him  that  hath 
loved  them.  When  by  the  power  of  a  living  faith  these 
promises  are  fully  received  and  rested  on  by  the  believer,  the 
burden  of  despondency  rolls  ofi",  and  he  feels  his  heart  grow 
strong  for  fresh  and  more  determiued  battle  with  his  remain- 
ing corruption.  "  This  the  victory  that  overcometh  the 
world,  even  our  faith." 

Another  source  of  despondency  to  the  Christian  may  be  in 
the  slow  progress  made  in  the  conversion  and  reformation  of 
the  world,  and  in  the  apparent  hoplessness  of  the  work  of 
finally  bringing  the  whole  race  under  the  controlling  power  of 
the  gospel  of  love  and  peace.  In  the  fervor  of  first  love,  the 
Christian  consecrates  himself  to  this  work.  He  feels  the  glow 
of  gratitude  to  his  Saviour  in  his  heart.  The  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  has  been  revealed  to  him  as  '-the  chief  among  ten 
thousand,  and  altogether  lovely."  His  heart  burns  within 
him  to  tell  to  others  of  the  love  of  his  Saviour,  and  urge  them 
to  come  to  him  for  life.  He  imagines  that  that  which  is  so 
sweet  and  lovely  to  himself  needs  only  to  be  presented  to 
others  to  be  joyfully  embraced.  Then  the  vision  of  a  king- 
dom of  justice,  and  purity,  and  love,  and  peace,  and  universal 
brotherhood,  as  revealed  in  prophesy,  is  so  wondrously  and 
surpassingly  beautiful  to  his  soul,  that  he  thinks  it  need  only 
be  preached  to  the  world,  and  men  will  crowd  into  it  at  the 
first  invitation.  With  these  thoughts  and  hopes  glowing  in 
his  heart,  he  goes  to  his  work.  But  he  soon  meets  with  bit- 
ter disappointment.  He  finds,  as  did  the  meek  compeer  of 
Luther,  that  the  ''  old  Adam  is  too  strong  for  the  young 
3Ielancthon  ;"  that  men  have  hearts  that  are  by  nature  en-- 
mity  to  God  ;  hearts  deceitful  above  all  things,  and  desperate- 
ly wicked.  The  truth  he  proclaims,  instead  of  being  joyfully 
accepted,  is  scornfully  rejected.     The  pride    of  the   human 


^6  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS    OF 

heart  spurns  the  humbling  terms  of  the  gospel.  From  ha- 
tred of  the  truth  the  transition  is  easy  to  hatred  of  him  who 
urges  it  on  their  acceptance,  and  he  finds  himself  the  object 
of  the  fierce  opposition  of  men  whom  he  seeks  to  bless,  and 
whom  he  expected  to  hail  him  as  a  messenger  of  good  tidings 
of  great  joy.  Disappointed,  surprised,  and  grieved,  how  natural 
is  it  for  the  heart  of  the  Christian  to  despond  and  grow  weary 
in  these  circumstances !  When  he  first  fully  realizes  the 
depth  and  strength  of  man's  enmity  to  God  ;  and  then  looks 
out  on  the  world  and  sees  how  crime  and  woe  and  sorrow 
walk  the  earth  on  their  mission  of  death,  his  heart  sinks 
within  him.  He  is  ready  to  ask  in  the  spirit  of  incipient  un- 
belief, "  Can  these  dry  bones  live  ?  Can  this  world  be  re- 
deemed ?  is  the  gospel  of  Christ  adequate  to  the  mighty 
work  ?  Why  does  not  Christ  come  and  bring  light  out  of  this 
darkness,  and  order  out  of  this  confusion  ?  And  where  is 
the  promise  of  his  coming?" 

Here,  again,  is  the  time  for  the  work  of  faith.  Only  by  its 
living  power  can  the  soul  thus  cast  down  continue  to  hope  in 
God.  But  it  is  adequate  to  its  work.  The  weary  soul  of  the 
Christian  turns  to  his  Father's  Word,  and  reads  promises  like 
this :  "  They  shall  not  hurt  nor  destroy  in  all  my  holy 
mountain  ;  for  the  earth  shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the 
Lord  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea."  He  knows  that  the  waters 
cover  all  the  sea;  and  faith  in  prophesy  assures  him  that  thus 
shall  the  knowledge  and  peace  of  God  cover  all  the  earth. 
He  reads  again  that  Christ  shall  have  dominion  from  sea  to 
sea,  and  from  the  river  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  ;  that  the 
heathen  shall  be  given  to  him  for  an  inheritance,  and  the  ut- 
termost parts  of  the  earth  for  a  possession.  And  all  over  the 
Holy  Book  he  finds  promises  like  these  glowing  and  flashing 
on  every  page.  "  By  faith  he  realizes  that  all  the  promises  of 
God  are  yea  and  amen  in  Christ ;  the  burden  is  lifted  from 
his  heart ;  the  weary  spirit  grows  strong  in  faith,  and  nerves 
itself  for  new  efi"orts  in  the  glorious  work  of  persuading  men 
to  be  reconciled  to  God." 

Thus  in  all  scenes  of  weariness  and  discouragement,  faith 
is  the  anchor  of  the  soul.  It  brings  near  the  promises  of  God. 
It  lifts  the  soul  out  of  the  darkness  of  the  present,  and  per- 
mits it  to  look  onward  and  upward  to  the  time  when  the 
clouds  that  now  lower  over  the  earth,  black  with  crime  and 
sorrow,  shall  be  dispelled,  and  the  earth  shall  bask  in  the  sun- 
light of  God's  peace  and  love.  Ever  appropriate  to  the 
Christian  worker  is  the  exhortation  :     "  Have  faith  in   God." 


rev.  joseph  gordon.  67 

"Stingy  Christians." 

There  are  none  such.  It  is  as  great  a  contradiction  of 
terms  as  to  talk  of  an  honest  thief.  But  there  are  stingy  pro- 
fessors of  religion  in  most  churches.  One  mark  of  these  men 
is  their  ingenuity  in  contriving  excuses  for  not  giving  to  the 
cause  of  Christ.  Ask  them  for  a  missionary  contribution, 
and  if  they  have  heard  of  the  slightest  error  in  the  manage- 
naent  of  the  particular  society  to  which  they  are  asked  to  give, 
they  triumphantly  parade  that  as  an  all-sufficient  excuse,  for- 
getting that  all  human  instrumentalities  are  imperfect.  If 
they  have  not  that  excuse  they  will  talk  perhaps  of  their  great 
sacrifices  to  support  the  gospel  at  home. — Ask  them  for  a  contri- 
bution to  the  cause  of  Christian  education,  and  they  will  tell 
you  of  a  donation  they  made  years  ago  to  some  institution  of 
learning,  which  was  not  managed  exactly  to  suit  their  notions. 
They  will  not  be  cheated  again.  Ask  them  for  money  to 
send  the  Bible  to  the  poor,  or  to  print  religious  books  or 
tracts,  and  they  will  tell  you  that  the  aifairs  of  the  publishing 
society  are  not  managed  economically.  This  or  that  officer 
gets  too  much  salary,  and  they  will  not  give  their  precious 
dimes  to  be  squandered  in  that  style.  Ask  them  to  take  a 
religious  newspaper,  and  they  have  more  papers  now  than 
they  can  read.  Their  stock  of  newspaper  reading  probably 
consists  of  one  or  two  dollar  weeklies,  filled  with  moral  poi- 
son, for  the  ruin  of  their  children. 

The  simple  truth  in  regard  to  these  professors  of  religion 
is  that  they  love  their  money  more  than  they  love  their  Sa- 
viour. Their  excuses  are  mere  pretense.  They  may  cheat 
their  own  consciences  with  them,  but  they  deceive  nobody 
else.  The  true  Christian  loves  to  give  to  the  cause  of  Christ. 
He  feels  it  to  be  a  2?rivilege  to  give.  He  regards  himself 
merely  as  a  steward  of  the  property  God  has  given  him  ;  and 
his  experience  is  that  it  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive. 


Power  op  Prayer. 

The  Bible  tells  us  that  "the  effectual,  fervent  prayer  of  a 
righteous  man  availeth  much."  A  simple  history  of  what  it 
has  accomplished  will  be  the  best  commentary  on  this  text, 
as  the  narrative  of  the  apostle,  in  the  11th  Chapter  of  He- 
brews, is  the  best  possible  illustration  of  the  nature  and  pow- 


68  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

er  of  faith.  The  history  of  the  achievements  of  prayer  is  a 
record  of  wonders. 

Abraham  prayed,  and  in  answer  the  destruction  of  Sodom 
was  suspended  on  the  contingency  of  finding  ten  righteous 
men  among  all  its  inhabitants.  The  servant  of  Abraham 
prayed,  and  the  appointed  wife  of  his  master's  son  comes  forth 
in  accordance  with  his  request.  Jacob  wrestled  with  the  An- 
gel of  the  Covenant  in  prayer,  and  the  fierce  heart  of  his 
brother  melts.  The  hoarded  enmity  of  years,  with  all  its 
dark  purposes  of  revenge,  is  subdued;  and  he  who  had  come 
forth  with  his  men  of  war  to  imbrue  his  hands  in  his  broth- 
er's blood,  falls  on  his  neck  and  weeps  the  gentle  tears  of  for- 
giveness and  love. 

Moses  cried  to  God,  and  the  east  wind  drove  back  the 
waves  of  the  Red  Sea,  and  piled  them  up  as  a  wall  to  guide 
the  chosen  people  over.  In  the  wilderness  he  prayed,  and 
the  waters  of  Marah  were  healed  and  became  sweet  to  the 
taste.  When,  on  another  occasion,  his  hands  were  raised  in 
supplication,  the  hosts  of  Amalek  were  scattered  in  battle; 
but  when  they  sank  the  armies  of  Israel  were  spoiled.  The 
parents  of  Sampson  prayed,  and  the  Angel  of  the  Covenant 
came  back  to  their  sight,  and  kindled  the  miraculous  fire  that 
consumed  their  accepted  sacrifice.  The  mother  of  Samuel 
prayed,  and  the  prophet  child  is  given,  a  precious  boon  from 
heaven.  "  Elias  was  a  man  subject  to  like  passions  as  we  are, 
and  he  prayed  earnestly  that  it  might  not  rain;  and  it  rained 
not  on  the  earth  by  the  space  of  three  years  and  six  months. 
And  he  prayed  again,  and  the  heavens  gave  rain  and  the 
earth  brought  forth  her  fruit."  The  same  prophet  prayed, 
and  the  dead  child  of  the  widow  of  Zaraphath  was  restored  to 
life. 

Again  he  prayed  on  Mt.  Carmel,  and  the  fire  fell  from  the 
sky  and  consumed  the  sacrifice,  to  the  confusion  of  the  wor- 
shipers of  Baal.  When  the  king  of  Israel  sent  forth  a  com- 
pany to  seize  the  prophet  Elisha,  and  the  heart  of  his  servant 
was  aiFrighted,  the  prophet  prayed  and  the  eyes  of  the  young 
man  were  opened,  and  he  saw  the  mountain  covered  with 
chariots  of  fire.  Again  he  prayed,  and  the  Syrians  were 
smitten  with  blindness,  and  led  helpless  captives  into  Samaria. 
He  prayed  again,  and  the  son  of  the  Shunaraite  was  restored 
to  life,  and  delivered  into  the  arms  of  his  mother. 

Hezekiah  prayed,  and  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  went  forth 
and  smote  in  the  camp  of  the  Assyrians  "  a  hundred  four- 
score and  five  thousand,  and  when  they  arose  in  the  morning 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  69 

they  were  all  dead  corpses."  Again  he  prayed,  and  the  Lord 
added  fifteen  years  to  his  life,  and  as  a  sign  of  his  recovery 
caused  the  shadow  to  go  back  ten  degrees  in  the  dial  of  Ahaz. 
Solomon  prayed  at  the  dedication  of  the  temple,  and  fire 
came  down  from  heaven  and  consumed  the  sacrifices,  and  the 
visible  glory  of  the  Lord  filled  the  house.  Nehemiah  prayed, 
and  the  heart  of  King  Ahasuerus  was  moved  to  send  him 
back  to  repair  the  city  of  his  fathers ;  and  to  give  him  letters 
of  recommendation  to  the  governors  beyond  the  rivers  to  aid 
him  in  the  work.  Again  he  prayed,  and  the  counsels  of  the 
enemies  of  Israel  were  brought  to  confusion,  the  walls  of  Je- 
rusalem were  rebuilt,  and  much  of  the  ancient  glory  of  the 
city  restored. 

Passing  from  the  Old  to  the  New  Testament,  and  the    nar- 
rative of  wonders  is  continued. 

In  answer  to  prayer  addressed  to  the  Saviour,  when  person- 
ally on  earth,  the  lame  walked,  the  deaf  heard,  and  the  blind 
received  their  sight,  the  lepers  were  cleansed,  devils  were  cast 
out,  and  the  dead  were  restored  to  life.  The  disciples  "  con- 
tinued with  one  accord  in  prayer  and  supplication,"  after  the 
ascension  of  Christ,  and  in  answer  the  Spirit  came  down  as  a 
mighty  rushing  wind,  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  "cloven 
tongues  as  of  fire  "  were  given  to  the  apostles,  and  three 
thousand  souls  were  converted  to  God.  Saul  of  Tarsus  pray- 
ed in  his  blindness,  and  the  messenger  is  sent  to  him  at  whose 
coming  the  scales  fell  from  his  eyes,  and  he  received  the 
Holy  Grhost.  Cornelius,  the  centurion,  prayed,  and  the  an- 
gel of  G-od  appeared  to  show  him  the  means  of  procuring  in- 
struction in  the  gospel  of  salvation.  Peter  prayed,  and  the 
heavens  were  opened,  and  the  vision  which  showed  that  to 
the  Gentile  as  well  as  to  the  Jew  the  gospel  was  to  be 
preached,  was  presented  to  his  view.  When  the  same  apostle 
was  cast  into  prison  by  Herod,  prayer  was  made  for  him  with- 
out ceasing  by  the  Church,  and  the  angel  of  the  Lord  opens 
the  door  of  his  prison,  strikes  off  his  chains  and  sets  him  at 
liberty.  Paul  and  Silas  prayed  in  the  dungeon  of  Phillippi, 
and  the  heaving  of  the  earthquake  opened  the  doors  of  the 
prison,  the  keeper  was  converted  and  set  them  free.  Paul 
prayed,  and. the  ship  in  which  he  sailed  to  Rome  was  saved 
from  the  violence  of  the  tempest.  Again  he  prayed,  and  the 
father  of  Publius  and  many  others  were  healed  of  their  dis- 
eases, and  the  word  of  God  was  greatly  spread  abroad.  "And 
what  shall  we  say  more?  for  the  time  would  fail  to  tell  of 
Gideon,  and  of  Barak,  and  of  Sampson,  and  of  Jephtha,  and 


70  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

of  David  also,  and  of  Samuel  and  the  prophets.  Who 
through  j:)rof?/er  (as  well  as  faith)  subdued  kingdoms,  wrought 
righteousness,  obtained  promises,  stopped  the  mouths  of 
lions,  quenched  the  violence  of  fire,  escaped  the  edge  of  the 
sword,  out  of  weakness  were  made  strong,  waxed  valiant  in 
fight,  turned  to  flight  the  armies  of  the  aliens." 

Here,  then,  is  the  Christian's  strength  and  hope.  When 
darkness  gathers  over  his  own  soul  and  shuts  out  the  light  of 
the  Divine  love ;  or  when  moral  gloom  overspreads  the  earth, 
the  ways  of  Zion  languish,  oppression  and  war  and  violence 
and  every  wrong  riot  in  scenes  of  guilt  and  suffering,  let  him 
kneel  at  the  mercy -seat  and  pray;  and  he  whose  arm  controls 
the  winds  and  waves,  and  moves  the  stars  in  their  courses, 
has  promised  to  hear  and  answer.  "Prayer  moves  the  arm 
that  moves  the  world."  And  the  record  of  God's  faithfulness 
in  answering  it  in  all  past  time,  should  encourage  his  children 
'•to  draw  near  to  him  that  they  may  find  grace  and  mercy  to 
help  in  every  time  of  need." 


Peace  with  God. 

Peace  is  thirsted  after  by  the  human  heart.  Amid  all 
scenes  of  strife  and  turmoil,  a  dream  of  rest  and  quiet,  when 
those  scenes  shall  have  passed  away  is  most  fondly  cherished. 
The  man  of  business,  in  the  feverish  toil  of  the  counting- 
room  and  the  mad  chase  for  wealth,  consoles  himself  with 
thoughts  of  the  quiet  country  residence.  The  statesman, 
riding  on  the  angry  waves  of  political  strife,  looks  forward 
with  keen  delight  to  the  time,  when  having  gained  the  eleva- 
tion he  seeks,  he  shall  be  permitted  to  wear  his  laurels  in 
peace.  The  sailor  on  the  stormy  ocean,  the  soldier  in  the 
din  of  battle,  cherish  fond  visions  of  a  return  to  the  quiet 
cottage  by  the  hill-side ;  and  of  exchanging  the  roar  of  the 
strife  that  rages  round  them,  for  the  murmur  of  the  rivulet, 
whose  gentle  music  soothed  the  slumbers  of  their  childhood. 

But  the  peace  which  the  soul  needs  to  meet  and  satisfy  this 
ardent  longing,  is  one  which  the  earth  can  not  impart.  A 
voice  to  still  the  inner  strife  which  sin  rouses  in  the  heart, 
and  to  point  the  way  of  peaceful  reconciliation  with  an 
offended  God  is  what  the  soul  demands;  and  that  voice 
speaks  in  accents  of  melting  tenderness  in  the  gospel  of 
Jesus,      "  Come  iinto  me.  all  ye  fhat  hhor  and  are  heavy  lacfen.^ 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  71 

and  1  loill  give  you  rest.''  "  Peace  I  leave  icith  yoii^  my  i^eace 
I  give  unto  you ;  not  as  the  world  giveth  give  I iinto  you:  let 
not  your  heart  be  troubled,  neither  let  it  be  afraid."  "  There- 
fore, being  justified  by  faith,  ive  have  peace  with  God." 

In  language  such  as  this  is  this  blessing  described.  The 
invitation  to  seek  this  peace  implies  that  man  is  now  at  en- 
mity with  Grod.  This  is  the  necessary  result  of  sin.  Sin  is 
a  violation  of  the  divine  law,  and  the  man  who  does  this  pro- 
claims himself  God's  enemy.  The  man  who  violates  the 
laws  of  the  State  in  which  he  lives,  by  that  act,  both  makes 
and  declares  himself  the  enemy  of  the  State.  His  crime  is  a 
declaration  of  war  against  the  government.  It  is  setting  its 
authority  at  defiance,  and  declaring  its  laws  unworthy  of  re- 
spect and  obedience.  Just  so  sin,  which  is  breaking  Grod's 
law  is  a  declaration  of  war  against  the  Almighty.  It  is  an 
open  repudiation  of  his  dominion  and  government,  and, 
therefore,  the  highest  treason  in  the  universe. 

It  is  no  arbitrary  proceeding  on  the  part  of  Deity  that  makes 
him  the  enemy  of  the  sinner.  It  is  the  transgressor's  own 
act.  The  law  he  breaks  is  based  on  infinite  justice  and 
goodness.  His  own  happiness  can  be  secured  only  by  ob- 
serving it.  The  breach  of  it  is  an  open  declaration  on  his 
part  of  his  hostility  to  Grod,  not  of  God's  to  him.  It  is  a 
necessity,  therefore,  of  his  own  choosing,  that  God  shall  be 
his  enemy. 

The  gospel  reveals  a  plan  for  the  pardon  of  the  past 
offenses  of  the  sinner,  and  provides  the  means  of  changing 
his  disposition,  so  that  he  shall  no  longer  take  pleasure  in 
sin.  The  result  of  an  interest  in  this  plan  is  peace  with  God. 
The  transgressor  becomes  a  dutiful,  obedient  child  of  God. 
The  smile  of  his  heavenly  Father  rests  upon  him,  and  he  finds 
an  unspeakable  peace  in  keeping  his  commandments.  "  Great 
peace  have  they  that  keep  thy  law,  and  nothing  shall  offend 
them." 

The  results  of  this  reconciliation  are,  first,  peace  among  all 
the  powers  of  the  soul.  Man,  as  a  sinner,  is  not  only  at  war 
with  his  Maker,  but  at  war  with  himself.  The  passions 
war  with  the  judgment;  the  appetites  with  the  conscience; 
the  claims  of  truth  and  duty  and  God  with  the  selfish  and 
sensual  desires  of  the  soul.  Love  and  hatred,  hope  and  fear, 
forgiveness  and  revenge,  all  struggle  for  the  mastery.  But, 
by  the  voice  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  work  of  regeneration, 
all  this  wild  tumult  is  stilled.  The  angry  waves  are  hushed 
to  peace.     The  mental  and  moral  powers  assume  their  right- 


72  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS    OF 

ful  supremacy  over  the  merely  animal  part  of  man's  nature. 
The  soul  becomes  as  a  well  regulated  machine,  all  parts  of 
which  work  in  beautiful  harmony — as  a  happy  family,  every 
movement  of  which  is  in  unison  and  love. 

2.  A  second  result  of  this  reconciliation  is  a  peaceful  sub- 
mission to  all  the  afflictive  dispensations  of  providence.  The 
soul,  at  peace  with  God,  looks  up,  by  the  eye  of  faith,  and 
sees  his  heavenly  Father  seated  on  the  throne  of  the  universe. 
All  the  events  of  life  are  referred  at  once  to  his  disposing 
hand.  Afflictions  are  felt  to  come  in  the  order,  and  as  part 
of  his  wise  designs.  They  are  even  hailed  with  joy  as  tokens 
of  a  father's  love ;  for  the  child  of  God  reads  in  the  book  of 
inspiration,  "  Whom  the  Lord  loveth  He  chastenefh,  and 
scourgeth  every  son  whom  he  receiveth."  He  sees  in  these 
trials  a  necessary  part  of  his  discipline.  He  "  glories  in 
tribulation,  also ;  knowing  that  tribulation  worketh  patience, 
and  patience  experience,  and  experience  hope,  and  hope 
niaketh  not  ashamed,  because  the  love  of  God  is  shed  abroad 
in  the  heart." 

3.  A  third  effect  of  peace  with  God,  through  the  gospel  of 
his  Son,  is  a  greatly  enhanced  pleasure  in  prosperity.  The 
soul  at  one  with  God  is  at  peace  with  all  around  it  except  sin. 
It  looks  abroad  on  nature,  and  sees  the  perfect  smile  of  God 
in  the  sunlight,  on  hill-top  and  valley.  The  sparrow  preaches 
to  it  of  his  tender  care ;  the  flower  of  his  love  for  the  beau- 
tiful. The  rock-piled  mountain  and  the  roaring  cataract  are 
tokens  of  that  almighty  power  which  is  pledged  for  his  own 
salvation.  The  streams  of  domestic  love  are  sweetened. 
Parental,  conjugal  and  filial  affection  flow  on  in  deeper  and 
holier  channels.  The  full  cup  of  blessings  causes  the  fuller 
heart  to  go  up  in  ascriptions  of  boundless  gratitude.  The 
heart  whispers  to  itself  in  accents  soft  as  the  quiet  murmurs 
of  the  gentle  stream,  "  The  Lord  is  my  shepherd,  I  shall  not 
want.  He  maketh  me  to  lie  down  in  green  pastures,  he 
leadeth  me  beside  the  still  waters."  "  Goodness  and  mercy 
shall  follow  me  all  the  days  of  my  life,  and  I  will  dwell  in 
the  house  of  the  Lord  forever." 

4.  A  fourth  result  of  the  peace  the  gospel  imparts,  is  a 
calm  and  heavenly  triumph  in  death.  The  soul  hears  the 
voice  of  its  beloved,  saying  to  the  waves  of  death's  dark 
river,  "Peace,  be  still."  When  the  eye  grows  dim,  and  the 
curdling  life-blood  trembles  faintly  along  the  quivering  chan- 
nels, a  tide  of  immortal  vigor  is  poured  through  all  the 
powers  of  the   soiil.     It  bursts  like  the  chrysalis   from    its 


REV.   JOSEPH  GORDON.  73 

shell,  and  floats  away  through  the  new  element  of  its  exist- 
ence, lit  up  with  glorj'  from  the  opening  heaven.  In  the 
parting  hour  the  voice  of  promise  sounds  in  his  ear  with 
words  of  blessing:  "Blessed  are  the  dead  that  die  in  the 
Lord,  yea,  from  henceforth,  saith  the  Spirit ;  that  they  may 
rest  from  their  labors,  and  their  works  do  follow  them." 
"  And  the  ransomed  of  the  Lord  shall  return  and  come  to 
Zion,  with  songs  and  everlasting  joy  upon  their  heads." 


Christian  Integrity. 

The  design  of  the  Christian  religion  is  two-fold.  First,  to 
save  the  souls  of  men  ;  second,  to  reform  the  world.  It  is  in- 
tended and  adapted  not  only  to  save  believers  from  hell,  but 
also  to  make  them  pure,  and  honest,  and  benevolent  in  life. 
The  last  mentioned  of  its  effects  is  the  first  which  it  pro- 
duces. It  makes  men  upright,  just  and  good,  and  afterward 
takes  them  to  heaven.  The  one  result  is  both  the  evidence 
and  surety  of  the  other.  It  is  by  transforming  human  char- 
acter that  Christianity  evidences,  in  a  great  degree,  its  power 
to  save  from  future  punishment.  It  follows  that  none  but 
those  who  are  ti'cm^formad  will  be  saved  by  the  gospel.  An 
impure,  selfish  or  dishonest  Christian  is  as  great  a  contradic- 
tion in  terms  as  an  honest  thief,  or  a  reverent  blasphemer. 
Purity,  benevolence  and  honesty  are  essential  elements  of 
Christian  character.  If  any  one  of  these  elements  of  char- 
acter is  manifestly  wanting,  it  is  an  evidence  of  the  want  of 
all  ;  for  "  he  that  offends  in  one  point  is  guilty  of  all." 

Overwhelming  evidence  of  the  spurious  character  of  "  the 
current  religion  of  the  country"  is  found  in  the  w^ant  of 
strict  integrity  among  professing  Christians.  Many  of  the 
prevailing  maxims  of  trade  are  palpable  violations  of  that  hon- 
esty enjoined  by  the  Christian  religion.  Let  us  look  at  some 
of  these. 

1.  It  is  considered  a  fair  rule  in  business  to  "buy  cheap 
and  sell  dear."  In  both  particulars  this  rule  is  grossly  dis- 
honest. To  buy  cheap  is  to  buy  for  less  than  the  real  value 
of  the  article  ;  to  sell  dear  is  to  sell  for  more  than  its  true 
value  ;  because  if  articles  are  bought  and  sold  for  their  real 
worth,  they  are  neither  cheap  nor  dear.  Now,  no  Christian 
will  habitually  trade  on  any  other  principle.  His  simple  rule 
will  be,  both  in  buying  and  selling,  to  give  and  receive  the 


74  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS  OF 

real  value  of  the  articles  bought  and  sold.  He  may  honestly, 
if  he  chooses  to  be  generous,  pay  more  for  articles  bought 
than  their  real  worth,  but  never  will  he  knowingly  take  them 
from  others  for  less.  Yet  to  such  an  extent  is  this  rule  of 
simple  justice  violated,  that  a  professor  of  religion  who 
should  rigidly  adhere  to  it,  would  be  a  marked  exception. 
He  would  be  set  down  at  once  as  fanatical,  impracticable, 
"  righteous  over  much,"  etc. 

Excuses  for  this  want  of  strict  integrity,  as  for  any  other 
vice,  are  never  wanting.  Sometimes  the  plea  is  urged  that 
the  seller  parts  with  his  wares  voluntarily,  and  hence  no  in- 
justice is  done  to  him.  If  this  were  true,  which  in  the  vast 
majority  of  cases  is  not,  it  is  no  excuse  to  the  buyer.  That 
state  of  mind  which  induces  a  man  to  offer  less  than  what  he 
knows  to  be  the  full  value  of  an  article,  is  itself  dishonest. 
It  shows  a  covetous  desire  for  what  belongs  to  his  neighbor, 
for  the  value  of  the  article  over  the  offered  price  is  honestly 
his  neighbor's.  But  the  excuse  in  most  cases  rests  on  false- 
hood. There  are  often  circumstances  surrounding  the  seller 
which  amount  to  a  virtual  compulsion.  Ignorance  of  the 
market  price  (known  to  the  buyer)  often  induces  him  to  take 
less  than  value.  Combinations  among  merchants  often  ena- 
ble them  to  carry  into  effect  the  motto,  "  Buy  cheap  and  sell 
dear."  Necessity  again  often  forces  the  poor  to  part  with  the 
products  of  their  hard  labor  without  an  equivalent.  There 
are  many  other  ways  (known  to  the  initiated')  of  taking  the 
advantage  in  a  bargain. 

In  business  transactions,  conducted  on  such  principles,  the 
truth  of  all  parties  suifers  quite  as  much  as  their  honesty. 
This  introduces  a  second  practice  as  dishonest  as  the  first. 

2.  It  is  very  common  among  professing  Christians,  as  well 
as  others,  to  violate  the  truth  both  in  praising  their  own 
wares  and  depreciating  those  they  wish  to  buy.  Graphically 
does  the  prophet  describe  this :  •'  It  is  nought,  it  is  nought, 
saith  the  buyer,  and  straightway  he  goeth  his  way  and  boast- 
eth."  The  simple  rule  for  the  Christian  is  to  tell  "  the 
whole  truth  and  nothing  but  the  truth  "  in  his  business  trans- 
actions. He  should  tell  the  imperfections  as  well  as  the 
virtues  of  his  wares.  He  will  "  nought  exaggerate,"  either  in 
setting  forth  the  superiority  of  what  he  wishes  to  sell,  or  de- 
preciating what  he  designs  to  purchase.  He  will  in  this,  as 
in  other  things,  act  in  the  spirit  of  the  golden  rule  :  what 
he  wishes  others  to  do  to  him  in  business  transactions  he  will 
try  to  do  to  them.     Every  one  feels,  when  he  is  himself  the 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  75 

sufferer,  the  injustice,  not  only  of  false  representations,  but 
of  witliholding  part  of  the  truth,  and  of  thus  deceiving  by 
silence  as  well  as  by  words. 

3.  A  third  and  perhaps  the  worst  indication  of  the  want  of 
strict  integrity  among  professors  of  religion,  is  found  in  the 
habitual  disregard  of  their  promises.  The  promise  of  a  pro- 
fessor of  religion  is  considered  generally  as  worth  no  more 
than  the  promise  of  any  moral  man.  Men  will  no  more  trust 
a  man  because  a  professor  of  religion,  without  bond  and  secu- 
rity, than  they  will  many  others.  Now,  this  fact  is  a  stand- 
ing reproach  to  religion.  The  word  of  every  truly  consistent 
Christian  is  as  good  as  his  bond.  So  the  world  regards  it. 
There  have  been  men,  and  some  are  now  living,  whose  sim- 
ple promise  the  men  of  the  world  consider  the  most  ample 
security.  Thousands  of  dollars  will  be  entrusted  to  them 
with  nothing  but  their  simple  promise  as  pledge  of  its  return  ; 
and  those  who  know  them  well  feel  that  it  is  as  safe  (if  they 
are  not  utterly  deprived  of  ability  to  refund)  as  if  a  whole 
community  were  legally  responsible  for  the  amount. 

But  that  such  is  not  the  confidence  reposed  in  the  vast 
majority  of  professing  Christians  is  a  most  notorious  and 
most  humiliating  fact.  What  is  still  more  disgraceful  is, 
that  when  implicit  confidence  is  reposed  in  any  of  this  class, 
it  is  not,  in  any  degree,  because  they  are  j^i'ofessors  of  religion, 
This  fact,  in  itself,  is  not  regarded  as  any  security  whatever. 
Men  feel  generally  that  they  must  guard  as  carefully  against 
being  cheated  by  members  of  the  church  as  by  any  other 
class.  They  feel  it  as  necessary  to  have  them  bound  in  bond 
and  security,  and  as  little  count  on  their  strict  punctuality  in 
fulfilling  their  promises,  as  on  that  of  any  other  portion  of 
community. 

The  influence  of  these  things  on  the  honor  and  power  of 
religion  is  most  disastrous.  These  facts  are  a  standing  dis- 
credit thrown  on  the  Church  and  a  profession  of  religion.  If 
men  understand  the  Christian  religion,  they  know  that  it  in- 
culcates the  strictest  justice  and  honesty  in  business,  and  the 
most  scrupulous  regard  for  truth.  When  they  see  its  pro- 
fessors habitually  violating  these  principles,  they  set  them 
down  as  hypocrites,  and  make  their  delinquencies  an  excuse 
for  their  own  neglect  of  the  claims  of  Christianity.  If  men 
do  not  understand  the  Christian  religion,  they  naturally  load 
it  with  the  evil  doings  of  its  professors — imagine  that  their 
religion  has  made  them  dishonest  and  false.  In  either  case 
the  effect  is  ruinous  and  melancholy.     Thousands  stumble 


70  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS  OP 

into  ruin  over  the  example  of  these  faithless  professors  of  re- 
ligion. They  daily  "  crucify  afresh  "  the  Saviour  they  pre- 
tend to  love,  and  "  put  him  to  an  open  shame." 


The  Religion  of  Principle. 

The  form  and  shape  of  the  religious  principle  in  man  is 
very  much  diversified — as  diversified  as  the  influences  by 
which  it  is  developed.  It  sometimes  takes  the  type  of  mere 
formality — observes  days  and  times,  and  forms  and  ceremo- 
nies, with  scrupulous  exactness.  In  this  it  consists,  and 
hence  exerts  no  controlling  power  over  the  life  and  conduct. 
It  is,  therefore,  no  uncommon  thing  to  find  the  most  scrupu- 
lous formalist,  the  most  dishonest  man.  It  is  not  at  all  un- 
usual to  find  men  who  would  be  shocked  at  the  thought  of 
breaking  the  Sabbath,  who  can  cheat  a  fellow-man  without 
any  compunction.  The  religion  of  mere  formality  is,  there- 
fore, worthless. 

Another  form  of  religious  development  is  that  of  mere 
feeling.  This  type  of  religion  is  spasmodic.  The  person 
under  its  influence,  makes  religion  consist  in  excited  feeling 
— in  ecstacies  and  excitements  of  the  emotions.  It  is,  there- 
fore, periodical  in  its  exercises.  It  manifests  itself  at  irregu- 
lar intervals,  and  usually  leaves  its  possessor  under  the  con- 
trolling power  of  worldly  motives  and  feelings  during  these 
periods.  Hence  it  is  not  generally  the  case  that  those  whose 
piety  all  consists  in  mere  feeling,  exhibit  a  high  regard  for 
justice  and  strict  integrity  in  the  conduct  of  life. 

The  religion  the  Bible  inculcates,  is  the  religion  of  princi- 
ple. It  does  not  exclude  forms  or  feelings,  but  controls  them, 
and  makes  them  subservient  to  the  claims  of  duty,  which  with 
it  are  paramount.  Its  essence  is  doing  right — doing  the  will 
of  God  from  the  heart.  This  is  declared  to  be  the  condition 
of  admission  to  God's  kingdom.  "  For  not  every  one  that 
saith  unto  me.  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in 
heaven."  The  soul  under  the  power  of  this  living  principle 
regards  the  revealed  will  of  God  as  the  expression  of  eternal 
righteousness.  To  conform  its  own  desires  and  feelings  and 
actions  to  that  revelation  is,  therefore,  its  highest  aim.  Re- 
ligion is  with  the  man  of  principle  u  practical  reality,  con- 
trolling his  daily  actions  and  all  his  intercourse  with  his  fel- 


REV.  JOSEPH  GOKDOX.  77 

low-men.  His  piety  may  not,  and  usually  does  not,  rise  into 
ecstacy  or  sink  to  corresponding  depression  ;  but  with  calm, 
steady  current,  moves  on  in  the  regular  channels  of  useful- 
ness and  duty. 

There  is  always  deep  feeling  in  the  religion  of  principle. 
It  is  not,  however,  the  fitful  outburst  of  transient  excitement, 
but  a  calm,  deep  under-current  of  love  to  God  and  man. 
This,  indeed,  supplies  the  motive  and  energy  to  the  true  re- 
ligious principle,  for  while  that  is  a  principle  of  faith,  yet 
"  faith  works  by  love."  The  affections  and  feelings  are  chas- 
tened and  made  subservient,  and  not  superior  to  the  obliga- 
tions of  conscience  and  duty.  The  habitual  conviction  of  the 
man  of  religious  principle  is,  that  duty  must  be  done.  If  his 
feelings  and  desires  stand  in  the  way  of  duty,  they  must  be 
crucified  ;  but  his  constant  desire  is  so  to  discipline  these,  that 
they  may  work  in  harmony  with  the  claims  of  right  and  duty. 


''Ambassadors  for  Christ." 

Ministers  of  the  gospel  are  ambassadors  for  Christ.  They 
are  sent  to  propose  to  men  God's  terms  of  reconciliation,  and 
to  urge  their  acceptance.  "  Now  then,"  says  Paul,  "we  are 
ambassadors  for  Christ,  as  though  God  did  beseech  you  by  us  ; 
we  pray  you  in  Christ's  stead  be  ye  reconciled  to  God."  Several 
important  truths  are  brought  to  light  in  this  figure : 

1.  In  the  first  place,  ministers  are  not  to  preach  their  own 
words,  or  to  propose  their  own  terms  of  pardon  to  sinners. 
An  ambassador  sent  to  negotiate  a  peace  between  parties  at 
war  receives  fixed  and  definite  instructions.  His  fidelity  con- 
sists in  adhering  strictly  to  these  instructions.  He  may 
neither  change  nor  abate  one  jot  or  tittle  of  them  all.  His 
mission  is  confined  to  the  simple  duty  of  stating  the  terms  of 
peace,  proposed  by  the  party  from  which  he  receives  his  com- 
mission, and  of  urging  their  acceptance.  Especially  is  this 
the  case  when  the  guilt  and  wrong  of  the  quarrel  are  all  on 
one  side.  It  is  then  the  exclusive  prerogative  of  the  other 
party  to  dictate  the  conditions  of  peace.  Still  more  is  this 
the  case  when  subjects  are  in  unnatural  and  guilty  rebellion 
against  their  lawful  ruler  ;  when  creatures  are  in  revolt  against 
their  Maker;  when  children  are  in  wicked  mutiny  against  a 
kind  and  good  Father.  Proposals  and  terms  of  reconciliation 
can  then  come  only  from  the  latter  ;  and  His  ambassadors  are 


78  LIFE  AND  AYRITINGS  OF 

doubly  bound  to  adhere  with  strictest  fidelity  to  the  very  letter 
of  their  instructions.  If  they  depart  from  theiu,  they  them- 
selves assume  the  attitude  of  rebels. 

Ministers  of  the  gospel  are  ambassadors  to  make  known 
the  condition  on  which  God,  the  creator  and  ruler  of  all 
things,  proposes  to  be  reconciled  to  the  race  of  men,  who  are 
in  guilty  rebellion  against  him.  It  is  Jehovah's  exclusive  pre- 
rogative to  propose  terms  of  peace,  and  it  is  the  business  of 
his  ambassador  to  expound  these  to  their  fellow-transgressors, 
and  to  pursuade  them  to  accept.  If  they  fail  to  declare  his 
whole  counsel  they  are  f^ilse  to  their  trust,  and  will  be  held 
guilty  of  the  blood  of  those  who  may  perish  through  their 
unfaithfulness. 

2.  Another  truth  brought  to  view  by  this  figure  is,  that  the 
people  are  most  deeply  interested  in  having  their  ministers 
preach  the  whole  truth.  It  is  their  interest  surely  to  know  pre- 
cisely the  terms  on  which  their  offended  Creator  and  Judge  will 
pardon  their  guilt,  and  restore  them  to  his  favor.  If  they 
are  deceived  on  this  point  they  must  be  infinite  and  eternal 
losers.  And  it  is  quite  possible  to  be  deceived.  There  is  a 
false  peace  which  may  be  mistaken  for  that  which  is  real.  The 
evidence  that  God  has  become  reconciled  to  the  sinner,  is 
peace  of  conscience,  a  sanctified  heart  and  a  holy  life.  But 
a  seared  and  stupid  conscience  may  be  mistaken  for  a  good 
conscience,  and  mere  selfish  morality  may  pass  current  for 
genuine  obedience.  God  may  be  really  angry  with  a  soul 
that  fancies  itself  in  loving  fellowship  with  him.  The  only 
way  to  guard  against  this  fatal  mistake  is  to  examine  critically 
the  t^rms  of  pardon  and  salvation  proposed  in  the  gospel,  and 
to  examine  strictly  the  heart  and  life,  to  see  if  they  have  been 
really  accepted.  To  aid  men  in  doing  this,  God  has  appointed 
a  ministry  as  his  ambassadors  to  declare  and  enforce  these 
terras.  If  they  are  false  to  their  mission,  the  people  are 
the  more  likely  to  be  deceived.  From  this  we  see  the  super- 
Vlative  folly  of  men  becoming  angry  with  God's  ambassadors 
for  the  faithful  and  pungent  preaching  of  the  truth.  Their 
own  eternal  interests  may  depend  on  the  word  being  thus 
preached. 

3.  Again  :  In  the  light  of  this  subject  we  see  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  people  to  examine  for  themselves  the  terms  of  re- 
conciliation proposed  by  their  ministers.  The  instructions  of 
God's  ambassadors  are  not  sealed.  The  word  of  God  is  not 
bound  ;  and  God  commands  all  men  to  search  the  Scriptures. 
Tho  Jews  of  Berea  were  coramendGd  for  searching  to  see  if 


REV.  JOSEPH  GORDON.  79 

the  word  preached  by  the  apostles  was  in  accordance  with  the 
inspired  oracles  of  God.  Christians  are  commanded  to  prove 
all  things,  and  hold  fast  that  which  is  good.  They  are  en- 
joined not  to  believe  every  spirit,  but  to  try  the  spirits  whether 
they  be  of  God.  All  these  and  many  other  injunctions  in 
the  Bible  are  totally  inconsistent  with  a  blind  and  unques- 
tioning reception  of  the  teachings  of  the  ministers  of  the 
gospel.  Men  are  bound  to  receive  those  teachings  with  all 
submission  so  far  as  they  are  true.  But  they  are  also  bound 
to  bring  them  to  the  test  of  the  inspired  word  of  God,  and  to 
see  if  they  are  true  before  they  receive  them.  And  this,  all 
true  ambassadors  of  God  desire.  The  true  minister  of  the 
gospel  desires  to  preach  nothing  but  the  truth.  He  feels  the 
solemn  responsibility  that  rests  upon  him  as  a  watchman,  at 
whose  hands  the  blood  of  the  wicked  will  be  required,  if  he 
fails  to  warn  them  of  their  danger.  Hence  he  desires  that 
those  to  whom  he  preaches  should  use  the  faculties  of  their 
minds  in  investigating  the  word  of  God,  that  by  their  labors 
in  this  behalf,  thus  united  with  his  own,  they  may  all  come  to 
a  more  perfect  understanding  of  the  lively  oracles.  He  de- 
sires this  also  because  those  who  thus  examine  for  themselves 
are  thus  prepared  to  receive  his  message  with  a  more  ready 
mind.  And  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  this  is  the  duty  of 
all  who  have  access  to  the  word  of  God.  While  the  unfaith- 
ful ambassadors  will  have  a  fearful  account  to  render  for 
themselves,  they  can  not  answer  at  the  judgment  for  those 
whom  they  have  led  astray.  The  soul  that  perishes  through 
their  unfaithfulness  will  bear  its  own  iniquity.  For  this 
reason  should  men  examine  for  themselves,  with  most  scrupu- 
lous care  into  the  terms  of  their  acceptance  with  God. 


Duty  of  the  Christian  Minister. 

The  chief  duty  of  christian  ministers  is  not  to  battle 
the  dead  heresies  of  the  past  age,  or  the  obsolete  sins  of  a  by- 
gone generation.  Neither  are  they  to  spend  their  strength 
in  proving  points,  on  which  their  hearers  are  already  con- 
vinced, or  in  dealing  out  abstractions  having  no  special  bear- 
ing on  their  immediate  duties.  The  preacher  of  the  gospel 
sees  before  him  a  congregation  of  dying  men  and  women, 
each  having  a  mighty  work  to  do,  to  secure  his  or  her  personal 
salvation;  and  another  work  equally  momentous  in  bringing 


80  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS  OF 

tlie  world  under  the  po\\^er  of  the  truth  of  God.  Hence  his 
great  concern  is  to  show  them,  first  what  they  must  do  to  be 
saved;  second,  how  they  can  best  labor  for  God.  And  as  sin 
is  that  which  destroys  the  present  and  eternal  welfare  of  men, 
and  robs  God  of  his  honor,  the  work  of  the  faithful  preacher 
of  the  gospel  brings  him  in  direct  conflict  with  all  the  sins 
of  all  his  hearers.  It  is  his  duty  to  hold  up  the  law  of  God 
in  all  the  extent  of  its  claims,  and  show  his  audience  how 
they  personally,  politically,  or  socially  violate  it.  As  every 
sin  is  destructive  of  the  peace  of  men,  so  every  sin  is  the  ob- 
ject of  his  reproof.  But  his  special  efforts  ought  to  be  against 
the  prevalent,  besetting  sins  of  his  hearers,  as  these  are  always 
the  most  dangerous.  Every  one  has  a  favorite  sin  which  he 
loves  above  all  others,  and  this  is  the  one  he  needs  to  be 
most  warned  against.  This  is  the  one  most  likely  to  ruin  his 
soul.  Now  for  a  preacher  to  rebuke  every  crime  except  just 
those  his  hearers  are  most  addicted  to,  is  worse  than  for  a 
physician  to  prescribe  remedies  for  all  diseases  save  just  the 
one  his  patient  is  suffering  with.  Suppose  him  called  to  a 
man  having  one  fatal  disease  preying  upon  his  body,  and  sev- 
eral of  less  dangerous  tendency. — If  the  physician  has  a  rem- 
edy for  the  worst  disease,  and  for  fear  of  causing  present  pain 
neglects  to  apply  it,  and  contents  himself  with  prescribing  for 
the  others  alone,  he  is  simply  a  murderer.  Just  so  the  min- 
ister of  the  gospel  who  for  fear  of  offending  his  hearers,  neg- 
lects to  expose  and  rebuke  their  favorite  sins  is  guilty  of  the 
worst  kind  of  murder — the  murder  of  the  soul. 

17  Son  of  man,  I  have  made  thee  a  watchman  unto  the  house  of 
Israel;  therefore  hear  the  word  at  my  mouth,  and  give  them  warning 
from  me. 

18  When  I  say  unto  the  wicked  thou  shall  surely  die:  and  thou 
givst  him  not  warning,  nor  speakest  to  warn  the  wicked  from  his  wicked 
way,  to  save  his  life;  the  same  wicked  man  shall  die  in  his  iniquity  ;  but 
his  blood  will  I  require  at  thine  hand. — Ezekiel  3:   17,   18. 

It  follows  from  the  principles  laid  down  that  the  preacher 
of  the  gospel  in  selecting  truth  to  be  presented  to  his  con- 
gregation, ought  to  choose  that  bearing  most  directly  on  their 
condition.  It  is  cruel  mockery  of  a  soul  which  asks  in  the 
eager  agony  of  conviction  for  sin,  "  What  must  I  do  to  be 
saved?"  to  hear  a  labored  argument  to  prove  the  doctrine  of 
predestination  or  the  perseverance  of  saints.  For  a  preacher 
to  spend  his  time  in  curious  speculations  about  the  origin 
of  evil,  and  the  way  in  which  it  was  transmitted  from  Adam 
to  his  posterity,  while  he  never  once  exposes  and  warns 
against  the  sins  that  are  sending  the  souls  of  his  hearers  to 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  81 

perdition,  is  "  daubing  with  untempered  mortar."  To  preach 
to  the  drunkard  against  the  sin  of  lying,  or  to  the  liar  against 
the  sin  of  drunkenness,  is  folly.  To  preach  to  a  congrega- 
tion of  slaveholders,  or  those  cherishing  a  pro-slavery  spirit, 
of  the  horrors  of  heathenism  in  a  foreign  land,  is  worse  than 
folly.  To  entertain  these  or  any  other  class  of  sinners  with 
long  discussions  about  abstract  theology,  or  points  of  doubt- 
ful disputation  is  to  be  a  traitor  to  God. 

Practical  conclusions  of  great  importance  may  be  derived 
from  these  principles.  If  a  man  is  called  to  a  congregation 
imbued  with  a  pro-slavery  spirit,  and  giving  ecclesiastical  or 
political  support  to  the  system,  he  ought  at  once  to  exhibit  in 
all  its  enormity  the  sin  of  slavery,  show  his  people  how  they 
are  involved  in  it  and  urge  them  to  repent  and  reform.  If 
his  hearers  are  living  in  the  breach  of  any  one  commandment 
in  particular,  its  solemn  obligations  ought  to  be  most  promi- 
nently held  up  to  their  view. — Such  a  course  on  the  part  of 
the  ministry  of  this  land,  would  redeem  it  from  disgrace; 
would  stop  the  mouth  of  Infidelity,  and  make  the  church 
"mighty  to  the  pulling  down  of  strong  holds." 


"  The  Harvest  is  Past,  the  Summer  is  Ended,  and  we 
ARE  NOT  Saved." — Jer.  viii :  20. 

The  revolution  of  seasons  has  brought  us  again  to  that 
period  of  the  year,  when  the  imagery  of  this  passage  of  holy 
Scripture,  is  most  vividly  appreciated.  The  natural  harvest 
is  past,  the  summer  is  nearly  ended.  The  earth  has  yielded 
her  increase  to  the  hand  of  the  reaper,  and  now  while  the  in- 
cense of  praise  and  the  voice  of  thanksgiving  should  go  up 
from  grateful  hearts,  the  mind  may  turn  to  study  with  profit 
the  moral  lessons  which  the  occasion  is  designed  to  teach. 

God  speaks  to  man  in  the  dispensations  of  his  providence, 
and  the  works  of  his  hands.  Each  one  of  the  seasons  teaches 
its  own  lessons.  When  spring  comes  forth  with  its  reviving 
breath  and  clothes  the  earth  in  beauty,  the  whole  scene  speaks 
of  the  goodness  of  God,  which  adorns  even  a  sin-cursed  earth 
with  so  much  that  tells  of  heaven.  Winter  teaches  the  lesson 
of  decay  and  death.  Summer  and  autumn  are  witnesses  of 
the  boundless  love  of  God,  in  causing  the  earth  to  bring  forth 
its  fruits  in  rich  luxuriance,  that  they  may  give  "seed  to  the 
sower,    and  bread   to  the  eater  :"    and  at  their  close  they  ad- 


82  LIFE   Ai>-D   WRITINGS   OF 

raonish  us  of  the  importance  of  improving  all  periods  of 
time ;  they  call  us  to  consider  that  the  seed-time  and  harvest 
of  life  are  passing,  and  that  if  we  fail  to  improve  the  precious 
hours,  we  will  at  last  be  compelled  to  take  up  the  mournful 
wail,  that  "the  harvest  is  past,  the  summer  is  ended,  and  we 
are  not  saved." 

The  simple  idea  of  this  passage  is  that  life  is  a  probation, 
that  it  is  rapidly  passing  away,  and  that  if  neglected  or  mis- 
improved,  the  soul  will  not  be  saved.  As  the  husbandman 
who  should  fail  to  sow  in  spring  or  reap  in  harvest  would 
starve  in  winter,  so  if  the  soul  fail  to  sow  the  seed  and  gather 
the  fruits  of  holiness,  it  will  wail  its  loss  when  forever  too 
late  to  repair  it. 

A  probation  is  a  time  for  favorably  affecting  the  future. 
From  the  present  we  may  send  an  influence  forward  which 
will  meet  us  there,  and  be  of  more  value  to  us,  than  all  the 
pains  and  labor  it  will  cost  us  now.  The  actions  of  men  are 
not  confined  in  their  results  to  the  time  when  they  are  put 
forth.  They  run  on  into  the  future  with  an  influence  for  good 
or  evil,  and  often  the  most  trivial  actions  apparently,  are 
fraught  with  the  most  far-reaching  and  momentous  results. 
It  is  indeed  a  solemn  truth  that  the  whole  future  of  man's 
existence  may  be,  and  often  is,  fixed  by  a  single  act.  There 
is  a  crisis  in  our  histoi'y  when  the  whole  future  is  suspended 
on  a  single  point. 

Many  illustrations  of  this  might  be  given.  The  moment 
when  the  youth  who  has  been  reared  in  habits  of  sobriety,  is 
invited  to  drink  the  first  glass  of  intoxicating  liquors  very  of- 
ten decides  his  fate.  If  he  yield  now  other  and  more  pres- 
sing temptations  will  follow,  while  his  power  of  resistance 
will  be  weakened,  and  his  doom  will  in  all  probability  be 
sealed.  But  if  the  first  temptation  be  resisted  and  overcome, 
a  second  will  come  with  weakened  force,  while  the  power  of 
resistance  will  be  proportionately  increased.  The  first  act  is 
important  as  it  settles  a  principle,  and  gives  direction  to  the 
future  life. 

The  hour  when  the  youth  is  first  tempted  to  pilfer  a  few 
dimes  from  his  emplpyer,  under  the  delusive  expectation  of 
being  able  soon  to  return  them,  is  another  turning  point,  when 
the  destiny  for  time  and  eternity  is  decided.  His  path  in  life 
is  chosen,  and  his  downward  course,  if  he  yield,  is  henceforth, 
without  almost  a  miracle  of  grace,  swift  and  steady. 

So  we  doubt  not  there  is  a  crisis  in  the  history  of  the  soul 
when  it^  destiny  for  eternity  hangs  suspended  in  the  balance, 


KEV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  88 

and  the  slightest  force  may  turn  the  beam  toward  heaven  or 
toward  hell.  There  are  moments  when  the  spirit  of  God 
presses  the  decision  of  the  great  question  of  accepting  Christ 
on  the  terms  of  the  gospel  on  the  soul,  until  it  is  almost  per- 
suaded to  yield.  The  motives  are  about  equally  balanced. 
The  person  comes  to  the  very  door  of  the  ark  of  safety,  and 
the  next  decision  will  either  land  him  safely  within,  or  behold 
him  turning  his  back  on  God  and  salvation.  As  "there  is  a 
tide  in  the  affairs  of  men,  which  taken  at  the  flood  leads  on  to 
fortune,"  so  there  is  doubtless  a  tide  in  the  spiritual  affairs  of 
men,  when  their  fortunes  for  the  eternal  world  are  suspended 
on  a  single  act,  or  it  may  be  a  single  thought  of  the  heart. 
These  are  the  summer  and  harvest  moments  of  life.  Once 
wasted  they  can  never  be  recalled,  but  through  eternity  the 
lostsoul  must  pour  the  bitter  but  unavailing  lamentation,  "  the 
harvest  is  past,  the  summer  is  ended,  and  I  am  not  saved." 

How  is  it  with  you,  dear  reader  ?  Are  you  sowing  the  seeds 
of  holiness  and  love  ?  Are  you  wisely  improving  the  summer 
and  harvest  seasons  of  life  ?  The  time  is  favorable  for  serious 
reflection.  Another  harvest  is  over ;  another  summer  is 
almost  gone.  Nature  will  soon  wear  the  somber  dress  of 
autumn  ;  tree  and  flower  will  be  stript  of  their  beauty  by  win- 
ter's chilly  winds.  The  notes  of  song  will  die  away  from 
woodland  and  meadow,  and  the  joyous  melodies  of  nature 
will  be  hushed  and  still.  So  man  passes  away — "  He  cometh 
forth  as  a  flower  and  is  cut  down,  he  fleeth  also  as  a  shadow 
and  continueth  not."  '•  We  spend  our  years  as  a  tale  that  is 
told."  Soon  those  forms  which  glow  with  beauty  and  rejoice 
in  their  strength  will  be  cold  and  still  in  the  grave.  The 
flowers  of  spring  will  wave  above  our  quiet  resting-places. 
Our  probation  will  be  closed,  our  destiny  sealed.  Shall  we  be 
then  rejoicing  in  the  presence  of  God  with  joy  unspeakable 
and  full  of  glory;  or,  shall  we  be  wailing  with  the  lost  that 
"  the  harvest  is  past,  the  summer  is  ended,  and  we  are  not 
saved?" 


"O  Lord  Revive  Thy  Work." 

Christian  reader  are  you  praying  for  a  revival  of  religion? 
Do  you  earnestly  desire  that  God's  work  should  be  revived  in 
your  own  heart,  and  in  the  Church?  Unless  you  really  de- 
sire this  you  can  not,  of  course,  pray  for  it  in  earnest.     True 


84  LIFE   AND    WRITINGS    OF 

prayer  for  a  revival  of  religion  always  contemplates  it  as  God's 
work.  The  prophet's  prayer  is,  "O  Lord  revive  thy  work." 
There  are  so-called  revivals  which  are  the  work  of  men.  Re- 
vivals of  religion  are  not  uncommon  in  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  yet  few  will  believe  that  the  spirit  of  God  has  any  agen- 
cy in  their  production.  No  part  of  this  country  is  more  fre- 
quently visited  with  revivals  than  the  slaveholding  States,  and 
men  go  from  the  altar  of  the  church,  where  they  have  just  pro- 
fessed to  '-get  religion,"  to  tear  the  mother  from  her  babe  and 
sell  her  where  she  shall  never  see  it  again.  Revivals  followed 
by  such  fruits  are  the  works  of  Satan  or  of  men. 

The  genuine  converts  of  a  true  revival  immediately  set 
about  doing  the  work  of  God.  It  is  the  Lord's  work  to  call 
them  into  his  kingdom,  enlighten  and  regenerate  their  souls. 
The  inevitable  result  of  this  is  that  they  begin  at  once  a  life 
of  obedience  to  God.  And  what  doth  the  Lord  require  of  all 
his  own  children  in  this  world?  "He  hath  showed  thee,  O 
man !  what  is  good,  and  what  doth  the  Lord  require  of  thee 
but  to  do  justly,  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy 
God?"  Piety  toward  God,  and  justice  and  benevolence  to- 
ward men,  are  the  great  duties  here  required.  No  revival  is 
genuine  which  is  not  productive  of  these  results.  A  pretend- 
ed conversion  which  leaves  the  convert  as  selfish,  worldly, 
and  regardless  of  justice  and  benevolence  as  he  was  before,  is 
utterly  spurious. 

Now  acceptable  prayer  to  God  for  a  revival  of  religion  will 
have  reference  to  these  truths.  All  true  prayer  is  based  on 
an  intelligent  understanding  of  what  is  prayed  for,  and  of 
God's  promises  in  respect  to  it.  Acceptable  prayer  is  only 
for  such  blessings  as  God  has  commanded  us  to  seek  for,  and 
has  promised  to  grant.  Hence  our  prayers  for  a  revival  of 
religion,  to  be  heard  and  answered,  must  be  for  holiness  of 
heart  and  life  in  ourselves  and  others.  L^nless  we  really 
desire  God  to  rule  in,  and  reign  over  us,  we  can  not  praj  in 
earnest  tlie  prayer,  "  0  Lord  revive  thy  work." 

But  will  we  not  all  strive  for  grace  to  offer  that  prayer  in 
sincerity  and  truth?  Surely,  Christian  brother  and  sister,  a 
revival  of  God's  work  in  our  own  souls,  in  the  Church  and  the 
world  is  greatly  needed.  Souls  are  going  unprepared  in 
multitudes  to  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ. — May  it  not  be 
that  our  coldness  and  worldliness  are  in  the  way  of  the  sal- 
vation of  some  of  them?  If  needed  so  much,  surely  then  a 
genuine  revival  of  religion  is  infinitely  desirable.  The  world 
is  full  of  the  works  of  men  and  of  the  Devil,  but  oh  how  little 


REV   JOSEPH   GORDON.  85 

of  the  work  of  Grod  is  seen  in  the  lives  even  of  his  professed 
followers.  The  subjects  of  Satan's  kingdom  in  this  world  are 
multiplying  faster  than  the  subjects  of  Christ.  Most  of 
the  professed  cJuirchcs,  even,  of  this  land  are  supporting  a 
system  which  makes  heathen  faster  than  all  the  churches  of 
the  country  are  converting  them.  Where  all  this  must  end, 
without  a  revival  of  God's  work,  it  is  not  difficult  to  see. 

A  revival  of  true  religion  is  also  practicable.  God  only 
awaits  the  prayer  of  faith  from  his  people.  For  the  outpour- 
ing of  his  spirit  he  will  "be  inquired  of  by  the  house  of 
Israel."  But  he  is  more  willing  to  give  his  Holy  Spirit  to 
them  that  ask,  than  earthly  parents  to  give  good  gifts  unto 
their  children.  If  we  ask,  therefore,  we  shall  receive,  if  we 
seek  we  shall  find. 


Christ's  Divinity  and  Atonement. 

Were  a  man  to  sit  down  for  the  express  purpose  of  teach- 
ing the  proper  deity  and  vicarious  atonement  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  he  could  not  employ  language  more  explicit 
and  precise  than  that  of  the  Bible.  All  the  names,  attributes, 
works,  and  worship  of  God  are  given  to  Christ.  He  is  called 
"the  true  God."  He  is  called  the  "Everlasting  Father,"  the 
"mighty  God."  The  glory  of  "Jehovah  of  hosts"  seen  by 
Isaiah,  as'  recorded  in  his  sixth  chapter,  was  the  glory  of 
Christ,  as  is  declared  in  John  12,  41.  Christ  claimed  for  him- 
self divinity  with  all  its  attributes,  and  was  therefore  properly 
God,  or  else  an  impostor.  He  repeatedly  declared  that  he 
and  the  Father  are  one.  He  made  himself  equal  with  God  by 
declaring  that  he  was  his  son.  Thus  the  Jews  understood 
him,  and  when  they  charged  him  with  blasphemy  for  claim- 
ing equality  with  God,  instead  of  correcting  their  error,  as  he 
must  in  honesty  have  done  if  he  were  not  God,  he  goes  on  to 
defend  his  claim  to  divinity. — Again:  Christ  and  He  alone  is 
the  son  of  God  by  generation.  He  is  the  "on7?/-begotten  son." 
All  other  creatures  are  God's  sons  by  creation.  Now  however 
impossible  it  is  for  us  to  conceive  of  the  process  of  generation 
in  the  divine  nature,  the  term  yet  irresistibly  conveys  the 
idea  of  the  perfect  sameness  of  the  Son  in  nature,  with  the 
Father.  A  son  by  creation  is  inferior  to  the  father,  but  a  son 
by  generation  is  of  necessity  equal  to  him.  The  son  of  a 
human  father  is  perfect  man,  because  begotten,  so  Christ,  the 
^'onl;!/  begotten  of  the  Father"  must  be  perfect  God. — If  this  is 


86  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

not  so  the  use  of  this  term  is  calculated  to  wholly  mislead  the 
human  mind,  and  the  Scriptures  can  not  be  received  as  a  safe 
and  sure  revelation  of  truth. 

Based  on  the  divinity  of  Christ  is  the  doctrine  of  his  vica- 
rious atonement. — This  doctrine  is  simply  that  Christ  obeyed 
the  law  in  our  place,  and  "died  for  our  sins  according  to  the 
Scriptures."  He  died  that  he  might  satisfy  the  truth  and 
justice  of  God,  and  magnify  his  law,  and  thus  provide  pardon 
and  life  for  the  guilty  race  of  man.  The  work  of  atonement 
consists  of  obedience  and  sacrifice.  But  unless  Christ  is  God, 
as  well  as  man,  his  obedience,  and  suffering  unto  death,  could 
have  no  merit  that  could  be  imputed  to  others,  or  avail  for 
their  salvation.  If  he  were  a  mere  creature  (though  the  first 
born  of  every  other)  he  would  owe  perfect  obedience  for  him- 
self, and  therefore  his  obedience  could  not  be  acceptable  as 
satisfying  the  claims  of  the  law  upon  the  guilty.  As  a  mere 
creature  he  would  hold  his  life  from  God,  and  would  have  no 
right  to  lay  it  down  for  sinners.  It  is  not  true  of  any  crea- 
ture that  he  has  "power  to  lay  down  his  life  and  power  to 
take  it  again."  But  Christ  declared  that  he  had  this 
power,  thereby  claiming  that  he  is  Lord  of  life,  which  is  not 
true  if  he  be  not  God.  The  divine  nature  of  Jesus  united  to 
the  human  gave  infinite  value  to  his  obedience  and  sufferings, 
and  also  gives  assurance  to  the  convicted  and  anxious  soul 
that  "he  is  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost  all  who  come  unto 
God  by  him." 

With  this  view  of  the  teachings  of  the  Scriptures  on  these 
points  accords  the  experience  of  every  truly  earnest  and 
anxious  soul.  They  alone  give  peace  to  the  deeply  convicted 
sinner.  The  soul  that  has  been  brought  by  the  Spirit  of  God 
to  feel  the  infinite  guilt  of  sin,  feels  at  the  same  time  that  the 
blood  of  a  mere  creature  can  never  wash  that  sin  away.  He 
whose  spiritual  eye  has  been  opened  to  see  the  number  and 
power  of  the  obstacles  and  enemies  that  are  opposed  to  his 
salvation,  feels  that  none  but  a  divine  Saviour  can  bring  him 
off  victorious  over  them  all.  He  feels  that  he  needs  a  Re- 
deemer who  is  "  mighty  to  save."  From  the  darkness  and 
terror  of  deep  and  pungent  conviction  of  sin,  the  soul  can 
emerge  into  light  and  peace  only  through  faith  in  a  divine 
Saviour  and  an  infinite  atonement. 

We  have  been  led  to  these  remarks  by  reading  some  extracts 
from  a  volume  of  sermons  by  Professor  Huntington  of  Cam- 
bridge, Mass.  The  Professor  has  been  a  Unitarian,  and  is 
yet,  we  believe,  nominally  in  connection  with  that  people.  He 


REV.    JOSEPH    GOBDON.  87 

is  a  man  of  powerful  intellect  and  of  fine  seliolarship.  He 
is  also  a  man  of  deep  spiritual  experience,  and  as  such,  lie 
finds  peace  only  in  Christ  as  properly  and  really  a  divine  be- 
ing, and  as  making  in  his  death  a  vicarious  sacrifice  for  sin. 
On  these  points  he  makes  the  following  explicit  avowal  of  his 
faith.     He  is  speaking  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  and  says : 

"  Like  all  men  since,  of  very  deep  and  intense  moral  ex- 
perience, and  such  always  find  themselves  interpreted  and 
satisfied  only  by  Paul,  he  came  out  at  last  upon  the  ground  of 
acceptance  on  account  of  faith  in  Christ,  and  entire  giving  up 
of  the  soul  to  the  free  mercy  of  God  ;  the  only  permanent 
ground  for  Christian  theology  to  rest  upon." 

Equally  clear  and  scriptural  are  his  views  of  the  nature  and 
office  of  Christ,  as  the  following  extract  will  show  : 

"  There  are  two  prevalent  apprehensions  of  the  character 
and  office  of  Jesus  the  saviour  of  the  world.  One  contemplates 
him  as  specially  appointed  to  represent  the  perfection  of  hu- 
manity, meaning  by  humanity  what  we  have  hitherto  known 
or  conceived  of  the  spiritual  powers  and  possibilities  in  a 
human  being.  This  view  holds  Jesus  to  have  been  a  perfect 
man  ;  the  completest  moral  example  and  religious  genius 
of  our  race  in  exhibiting  in  his  life  and  death  the  utmost  that 
human  excellence  can  do  or  be  ;  as  showing  the  ultimate 
achievement,  thus  far  at  least,  of  a  man's  virtue,  love  and 
faith  ;  and  as  having  withdrawn  his  personal  presence  and 
power  from  the  world  at  his  ascension,  so  that  the  communion 
of  his  followers  is  not  literally  a  communion  with  him, 
but  is  only  a  commemorative  observance  for  a  Teacher 
living  on  earth  in  the  past,  but  retired  now  into  the  heavens. 

"  The  other  view  regards  Christ  as  showing  forth  not  only  a 
perfect  humanity,  but  also  and  primarily  God  himself;  repre- 
senting God  to  man,  as  well  as  man  to  himself;  being  God  in  the 
act  and  character  of  revealing  or  manifesting  himself;  creating 
and  saving  the  world  ;  separate  at  no  point  from  God's  sover- 
eignty, nor  knowing  in  his  divinity,  any  limitation  or  abridg- 
ment from  the  fullness  of  God  ;  exhibiting,  as  in  God's  behalf, 
through  a  union  of  nature  with  the  Father,  not  explicable  to 
to  us,  the  divine  attributes  ;  and  reconciling  alienated  souls 
by  manifesting  God  in  his  flesh.  According  to  this  doctrine, 
he  survives  in  his  Church  to  this  day,  and  will  survive,  not 
only  by  influence  and  memory,  but  by  the  presence  of  his 
person  ;  a  distinct  and  everlasting  person  in  himself,  without 
beginning  of  days  or  end  of  years,  the  same  yesterday,  to- 
day and  forever. 


SS  LIFE   AND  AVRITINGS   OF 

"  The  latter  of  the  two  views  appears  to  me  not  only  incom- 
parably the  most  benignant  and  precious,  but  to  stand  toward 
the  other  in  the  relation  of  truth  to  error  ;  to  be  charged  with 
inestimable  benefit  to  our  religious  progress ;  to  be  liable  to 
fewer  theological  perversions,  and  less  dangerous  abuses  ;  and 
to  need  also  that  it  be  more  distinctly  asserted  and  impressed, 
on  our  present  habits  of  thinking,  especially  among  the 
inquiring  and  the  young." 

The  promulgation  of  such  views  in  such  a  quarter  will  pro- 
bably mark  an  era  in  the  history  of  New  England  Unitarian - 
ism.  The  Professor  will  gather  around  him  all  that  is  vital 
and  evangelical  in  that  denomination.  A  separation  of  the 
elements  will  probably  ensue.  The  one  party  will  come  out 
on  the  ground  of  distinct  evangelism  and  orthodoxy.  The 
other  party,  cut  loose  from  this  vitalizing  element,  will  pro- 
bably gravitate  to  the  congenial  infidelity  of  Strauss  and 
Parker. 


Samuel  Lewis 

Died  on  Friday  last  at  half  past  12  o'clock,  p.  M.,  in  the 
fifty-sixth  year  of  his  age.  Although  this  event  has  been 
expected  for  a  considerable  time,  yet  the  announcement  falls 
sadly  on  the  ear  of  all  who  knew,  and  consequently  loved  the 
deceased.  Indeed  every  friend  of  the  slave,  whether  person- 
ally acquainted  with  him  or  not,  will  mourn  the  loss  of  one 
of  the  truest,  ablest,  and  noblest  advocates  of  the  cause  of  the 
poor.  Every  one  who  has  ever  listened  to  the  eloquent  voice 
of  the  departed,  will  feel  a  sad  regret  that  its  tones  of  warn- 
ing, entreaty,  and  touching  pathos  will  be  heard  no  more. 
One  of  the  purest  and  bravest  soldiers  of  the  army  of  free- 
dom has  fallen  at  a  time  when  his  services  were  eminently 
needed.  But  he  died  in  the  harness;  and  has  bequeathed  to 
his  comrades  in  arms  a  name  of  which  they  may  be  proud, 
and  an  example  which  if  they  will  faithfully  emulate,  will,  to 
some  extent,  compensate  the  loss.  We  have  not  the  materials 
nor  the  space  for  a  biography  of  Mr.  Lewis.  A  few  points  of 
his  character,  hastily  sketched,  are  all  that  our  limits  admit  of. 

1.  He  was  an  eminently  earnest  and  honest  man.  This 
high  praise  even  those  who  most  strongly  oppose  his  views, 
freely  accorded  to  him.  No  one  ever  listened  to  his  voice,  we 
presume,  without  being  fully  convinced  of  the  deep  earnest- 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  89 

ness  of  feeling,  and  honesty  of  purpose  which  pervaded  all 
his  words  and  thoughts.  The  sacrifices  he  made  for  the  cause 
nearest  his  heart,  are  abundant  evidence  that  he  was  actuated 
by  an  earnest  and  honest  conviction  of  duty.  No  man  stood 
higher  in  the  confidence  and  affection  of  the  people  of  the 
State,  at  the  time  he  threw  himself,  soul  and  body,  into  the 
then  unpopular  anti-slavery  cause.  Through  his  valuable 
and  persevering  labors  in  the  cause  of  education,  he  had  be- 
come known  and  loved  by  the  great  mass  of  the  people.  Had 
he  chosen  the  field  of  political  preferment,  there  is  no  honor 
in  the  gift  of  the  people  which  he  might  not  have  attained. 
But  the  mute  appeal  of  the  dumb  and  suffering  slave  touched 
his  heart.  His  soul  was  fired  with  indignation  at  his  wrongs, 
and  with  deep  sympathy  for  his  woes.  And  without  "  con- 
sulting with  flesh  and  blood,"  he  threw  himself  a  living  sac- 
rifice upon  the  altar  of  humanity.  He  made  no  reserve  in 
the  consecration,  but  gave  mind,  soul,  body,  influence  and 
property  freely  to  the  holy  cause.  And  from  that  time  on- 
ward never  wavered  from  his  high  purpose,  amid  all  the 
obloquy,  reproach  and  violence  that  were  poured  upon  the 
hated  advocates  of  the  down-trodden  and  the  poor. 

2.  In  the  second  place,  Mr.  Lewis  was  a  man  of  great 
energy.  He  was,  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  a  self-made 
man.  His  early  opportunities  of  education  were  very  limited. 
A  pioneer  in  Ohio,  he  came  before  the  school-house  opened 
its  doors  for  the  admission  of  youth.  His  training  was  his 
own  work.  Yet  no  one  ever  listened  to  the  compact  logic  of 
his  speeches,  and  marked  his  great  command  of  the  English 
language  without  feeling  that  he  was,  in  the  truest  sense  of 
the  word,  a  well  educated  man.  It  was  his  great  energy  that 
triumphed  over  the  difficulties  and  privations  of  his  early 
life,  and  which  bore  him  on  in  all  his  subsequent  career. 
What  his  hand  found  to  do,  he  did  with  all  his  might.  And 
he  lived  to  accomplish  a  great  work.  The  common-school 
system  of  the  great  State  of  Ohio  is  one  of  his  monuments  ; 
and  when  the  fetters  shall  at  last  be  stricken  from  the  limbs 
of  the  toiling  slave,  few  names  will  be  more  gratefully 
remembered  than  that  of  Samuel  Leavis. 

3.  He  was  an  humble,  devoted  Christian.  This  is  his 
chiefest  praise.  This  at  once  stamps  him  as  the  noblest  and 
highest  style  of  man.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  his  natu- 
ral earnestness,  sincerity  and  energy  of  character,  would  have 
sustained  him  in  all  the  trials  and  persecutions  to  which  he 
was  exposed  had  the  power  of  high  Christian  principle  been 


90  LIFE   AND   AVPJTINQS    OF 

wanting.  But  when  to  tliese  natural  traits  was  added  the 
constraining  power  of  the  love  of  Christ,  a  life  of  noble  pur- 
pose and  of  great  usefulness  was  the  certain  result.  There 
is  nothing  comparable  to  the  influence  of  Christian  principle 
in  nerving  a  human  soul  for  the  endurance  of  trial,  or  the 
accomplishments  of  great  ends.  Amid  the  many  allurements 
of  the  world,  adapted  to  turn  men  away  from  the  path  of 
duty,  it  is  the  only  safe  and  certain  guide.  It  was  to  this 
principle,  no  doubt,  that  the  subject  of  this  notice  owed  most 
of  his  success. 

The  dispensation  of  God's  providence,  which  has  removed 
him  from  the  field,  has  its  lessons  for  the  living.  They  are 
called  by  it  to  watchfulness  and  prayer,  and  to  renewed  con- 
secration to  the  Christian  work.  They  are  taught  that  their 
entire  dependence  is  in  God,  and  not  in  an  arm  of  flesh. 
And  they  are  called  to  emulate  the  virtues  of  the  deceased, 
and  follow  his  example  in  so  far  as  he  followed  Christ. 


"  Ultraism." 

There  is  no  term  more  flippantly  applied  than  this  by  men 
of  small  minds  to  unpopular  reforms.  The  changes  are  rung 
upon  it  through  all  the  notes  of  the  gamut.  Owl-faced  con- 
servatism, with  its  canting  affectation  of  wisdom,  mutters  it 
in  solemn  tones,  when  any  curtailment  of  hoary  abuses  or 
canonized  wrongs  is  proposed.  Pigmy  politicians,  whose 
glory  is  to  follow  their  leaders  and  do  the  bidding  of  their 
party,  prattle  glibly  of  the  ultraism  of  those  who  propose  any 
higher  aim  in  politics  than  power  and  spoils.  Lilliputian 
divines,  who  live  in  the  smiles  of  the  titled  dignitaries  of  the 
Church,  use  this  term  as  their  mightiest  argument  against 
those  who  "  walk  not  with  them  "  in  sustaining  the  infalli- 
bility of  their  ecclesiastical  organization.  Ultraists  are  given 
over,  in  their  charitable  judgment,  to  the  "  uncovenanted 
mercies  of  God.'' 

This  term  has  been  applied,  in  times  and  ways  innumera- 
ble, to  the  opposcrs  of  slavery,  drunkenness.  Free  Masonry, 
war  and  other  evils  in  this  country.  Being  misunderstood, 
it  has  become  a  term  of  reproach,  and  has,  probably,  served 
to  deter  timid  souls  from  the  investigation  and  adoption  of 
right  principles  on  these  subjects.  It  is  really  a  term  of 
honor.     No  man  ever  benefited  his  race  by  any  great  discov- 


REV.   JOSEPH    GORDON.  91 

ery  in  science  or  art.  or  by  the  exhibition  and  defense  of 
great  truths  in  morals  and  religion,  without  being  counted  an 
ultraist  by  the  men  of  his  own  generation.  Ultraisra,  in  any 
one's  estimation,  is  simply  getting  beyond  himself.  The  term 
is,  therefore,  entirely  relative.  The  position  which  exposes 
any  man  to  this  charge  depends  entirely  on  the  ground  occu- 
pied by  those  who  make  it.  Sad,  therefore,  would  it  be  for 
men — sunk,  as  the  mass  of  them  have  ever  been,  in  ignorance 
and  error — if  no  one  ever  got  beyond  them  in  the  investiga- 
tion and  discovery  of  truth.  It  is  by  raising  up  men  to 
explore  the  paths  of  truth  and  wisdom,  and  announce  their 
discoveries  to  the  world,  that  God  promotes  the  real  progress 
of  the  race.  But  those  men  are,  from  the  nature  and  neces- 
sity of  their  vocation,  ultraists  to  the  men  of  their  own  times, 
who  fail  to  make  the  same  advancements.  And  though  the 
progress  of  these  discoveries  may  be  but  small,  yet  it  is  still 
ultraism  to  those  who  make  no  progress  at  all,  but  who  plod 
on,  from  generation  to  generation,  in  the  beaten  path  their 
fathers  trod  before  them. 

The  history  of  the  world  furnishes  an  illustrious  catalogue 
of  ultraists.  On  it  are  enrolled  the  names  of  all  the  great 
and  good  of  past  ages.  When  Moses  and  Aaron  "  agitated  " 
for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  Egypt,  their  notions  were 
thought  exceedingly  ultra  by  Pharaoh  and  the  Egyptians. 
"  Who  is  the  Lord  that  I  should  obey  him  ?  "  was  his  in- 
dignant question.  What  new-fangled  fanaticism  have  we 
here?  Has  not  four  hundred  years  of  legislation  '■'■sanctioned 
and  sanctified  "  the  bondage  of  these  Hebrews?  Away  with 
such  ultraism^  I  will  not  let  the  people  go. 

When  the  decree  went  forth  from  the  King  of  Babylon  that 
no  petition  should  be  asked  for  thirty  days  of  any  god,  save 
of  King  Darius,  the  conduct  of  Daniel  was  exceedingly  ultra. 
Why  could  not  he  have  drawn  the  curtains  of  his  window 
and  prayed  to  his  God  in  secret?  Why  could  he  not  have 
refrained  from  assuming  the  attitude  of  devotion  ?  He 
could  still  have  prayed  to  his  God  in  silent  ejaculations. 
What  fanatical  ultraism  to  expose  himself  to  the  fury  of  the 
lions  that  were  fasting  to  whet  their  appetites  for  blood. 

When  the  image  was  set  up  in  the  plain  of  Dura,  and  the 
people  commanded  to  fall  down  and  worship,  it  was  ultraism 
that  kept  the  three  young  Hebrews  erect.  What  need  for 
them  to  brave  the  wrath  of  the  king  about  so  trifling  a 
matter  as  falling  down  on  their  knees  with  the  rest  of  the 
crowd  ?     Could  they  not  embrace  that  as  a  time  for  prayer  to 


92  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS    OP 

the  Grod  of  heaven?  Would  not  the  intention  sanctify  the 
deed?  Then  what  fanatical  ultraism  not  to  have  the  fear  of 
the  glowing  furnace  before  their  eyes. 

Isaiah  was  deemed  so  ultra  for  commanding  the  Jews,  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord,  to  "break  every  yoke  and  let  the 
oppressed  go  free,"  that  he  was  sawn  asunder  as  the  only  cure 
for  fanaticism.  Jeremiah  was  repeatedly  imprisoned,  and 
punished  in  other  ways,  for  his  ultraism,  in  denouncing  woe 
unto  him  that  used  his  neighbor's  service  without  wages,  and 
gave  him  not  for  his  work. 

The  Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  the  very  Prince  of  ultraists. 
When  he  denounced  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  as  serpents  and 
vipers,  exposed  to  the  damnation  of  hell — when  he  drove  out 
the  sacrilegious  trafficers  from  the  temple — when  he  called  the 
Jews,  who  boasted  of  their  freedom  and  of  their  descent  from 
Abraham,  the  servants  of  sin,  and  the  children  of  the 
Devil,  his  words  and  conduct  were  deemed  intolerably  ultra 
and  fanatical.  Not  less  so  were  some  of  his  sayings  deemed 
by  his  own  disciples.  When  he  pronounced  blessings  on  the 
poor  in  spirit,  when  he  exhorted  to  seek  first  the  kingdom  of 
God  and  his  righteousness,  and  to  have  no  thought  for  the 
morrow  in  regard  to  the  things  of  this  life  ;  and  when  he  as- 
sured his  followers  that  it  was  easier  for  a  camel  to  go  through 
the  eye  of  a  needle  than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  ;  so  ultra  were  these  things  regarded,  that 
even  his  disciples  exclaimed  in  utter  astonishment,  "  Who, 
then,  can  be  saved  !  " 

Examples  of  the  same  character  multiply  upon  us  when  we 
come  to  the  history  of  the  apostles  and  martyrs.  What 
Ultraism  to  refuse  to  throw  a  handful  of  incense  on  the  altar 
in  the  idol's  temple,  and  to  eat  of  the  meat  offered  there  in 
sacrifice?  When  commanded  to  speak  no  more  in  the  name 
of  Jesus,  their  declaration  that  they  "  ought  to  obey  God 
rather  than  men,"  was  thought  then,  and  is  now,  the  most 
ultra  fanaticism.  The  rulers  thought  the  "peace  and  har- 
mony "  of  the  nation  endangered  by  such  radical  doctrines. 
The  supremacy  of  the  laws  could  not  be  maintained  if  such 
notions  should  prevail;  nay,  the  very  union  of  the  (Jewish) 
States  would  be  dissolved  "  if  men  should  thus  set  up  con- 
science above  the  Constitution  and  laws." 

As  with  the  apostles  and  the  Saviour,  so  with  the  doctrines 
they  taught.  There  are  very  plain  and  explicit  precepts 
given  in  the  sacred  writings,  which  if  now  reduced  to  practice 
by  members  of  any  of  the  leading  denominations  of  Christians, 


EEV.   JOSEPH   GORDON".  98 

will  expose  them  to  the  imputation  of  the  very  folly  of  ultra- 
ism.  For  instance,  the  following:  "Be  not  conformed  to 
this  world,  but  be  ye  transformed  by  the  renewing  of  your 
minds,  that  ye  may  prove  what  is  that  good,  and  acceptable, 
and  perfect  will  of  God."  The  world  has  its  maxims  and 
fashions,  and  the  man  or  woman  who  conforms  not  to  these, 
is  at  once  set  down  as  ultra  and  fanatical.  Instances  will 
suggest  themselves  to  every  mind,  and  need  not,  therefore, 
be  specified.  Another  explicit  command  is,  "I  say  unto  you 
that  ye  shall  resist  not  evil,  but  whosoever  shall  smite  thee  on 
thy  right  cheek  turn  to  him  the  other  also."  Let  this  teach- 
ing be  proclaimed  now,  and  urged  as  a  practical  duty,  and 
Uved  out  by  its  advocates,  and  at  once  they  are  denounced  as 
impracticable  ultras;  as  promulging  principles  that  will  over- 
turn all  order,  and  all  government. 

Again:  an  express  command  of  holy  writ  is,  "Remember 
those  in  bonds  as  bound  with  them."  Let  any  one  manifest 
but  a  tithe  of  the  zeal  for  the  oppressed,  that  he  would 
feel  if  himself  enslaved,  and  the  English  vocabulary  is  ex- 
hausted to  stigmatize  the  ultraism  of  his  conduct.  The  Bible 
is  full  of  passages  which  we  could  quote  to  the  same  effect, 
but  our  limits  do  not  admit  it. 

We  hold  it  just  as  impossible  for  men  to  be  too  earnest  in 
the  advocacy  of  truth,  justice  and  right,  as  it  is  for  men  to  be 
too  holy  in  their  character  and  conduct.  That  truth  may  be 
defended  through  wrong  motives,  and  under  the  influence  of 
bad  passions,  is  of  course  true.  That  men  may  be  ultra  in 
wickedness  is  equally  true.  All  sin — the  least,  (if  there  be 
any  least) — is  ultra  rebellion  against  God.  We  have  used 
the  term  only  as  it  is  commonly  applied,  in  reference  to  the 
advocacy  and  practice  of  truth.  That  men  can  ever  say  too 
much,  or  do  too  much,  for  truth,  and  justice,  and  right,  is 
simply  impossible. — Equally  impossible  is  it  to  carry  out 
truth  and  righteousness  too  far  in  the  practical  duties  of  life. 


Death  of  Henry  Clay. 

This  long  looked  for  event  has  at  length  transpired.  Min- 
ute guns  and  tolling  bells  have  proclaimed  to  the  nation  the 
statesman's  departure.  Were  the  nation  but  wise  it  would 
learn  a  solemn  and  impressive  lesson  in  the  event.  That  les- 
son however  will  not  be  learned  in  the  fulsome  adulation  of 
political  admirers,  or  in  the  wholesale  panegyrics  of  the  pul- 


94  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

pit  and  the  so-called  religious  press.  Nothing  more  danger- 
ous to  the  morals  of  the  young  can  issue  from  these  sources 
than  the  indiscriminate  eulogy  which  is  habitually  meted  out 
to  the  worldly  great,  on  their  departure  from  this  life.  The 
true  moral  of  the  life  and  death  of  a  man  like  Henry  Clay 
is  not  learned  in  those  high  wrought  funeral  sermons  and 
orations  which  hold  him  up  as  a  model  of  every  political, 
moral  and  social  virtue.  But  in  a  calm  contemplation  of 
the  great  object  of  such  a  life,  in  the  contrast  between  what 
it  did  accomplish  and  what  it  might  have  accomplished,  and 
in  the  view  of  its  last  reckoning  at  the  bar  of  eternal  justice, 
there  is  a  volume  of  rich  and  impressive  instruction. 

It  teaches  the  vanity  of  mere  worldly  ambition.  What 
now  are  the  honors  of  successful  statesmanship,  or  the  tri- 
umphs of  his  glorious  powers  of  oratory  to  Henry  Clay?  If 
rescued  from  oblivion  his  name  will  go  to  posterity  as  one  of 
the  chief  pillars  of  the  worst  system  of  wrong  and  oppression 
that  ever  cursed  the  earth.  Often  in  the  day  of  their  extrem- 
ity has  his  clarion  voice  rallied  the  fainting  cohorts  of  slavery 
to  a  renewed  and  successful  charge  upon  the  hosts  of  freedom. 
Now  as  the  result  of  his  efforts  the  dark  pall  of  slavery  is 
settling  down  over  millions  of  acres  of  territory  until  lately 
free  from  its  polluting  touch.  In  the  light  of  eternity  as 
these  "works  of  his  life  do  follow  him,"  how  must  they  appear 
to  the  vision  of  the  departed  statesman  ? 

In  contrast  with  what  he  might  have  accomplished  for  Grod 
and  humanity,  the  actual  results  of  a  life  like  that  of  Clay 
presents  a  saddening  object  of  contemplation.  Seldom  have 
his  powers  of  oratory  been  equaled.  But  rarely  has  man 
possessed  the  power  to  draw  around  him,  and  fjxscinate  by  the 
spell  of  his  social  accomplishments  such  crowds  of  admiring 
and  devoted  friends.  With  these  qualities  were  combined  an 
iron  energy  and  will  and  an  unyielding  firmness  in  defense  of 
his  position.  Had  these  glorious  gifts  been  sanctified  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  and  consecrated  to  the  service  of  God,  what 
unspeakably  blessed  and  happy  results  would  have  followed! 
Had  the  fires  of  genius  been  purified  and  fanned  to  a  higher 
glow  by  the  coal  that  touched  Isaiah's  hallowed  lips,  what 
clouds  of  moral  darkness  would  have  been  dispelled  by  their 
light.  Had  the  battle-axe  of  truth  ever  been  wielded  by  the 
strong  arm  of  the  departed  statesman,  how  many  a  frown- 
ing Bastile  of  error  would  have  been  leveled  in  the    dust. 

For  what  have  these  glorious  objects  been  sacrificed?  For 
the  idle  flattery  of  political  admirers,  and  for  the  unrealized 


REV.   JOSEPH    GORDON.  95 

hope  of  reaching  the  highest  office  in  the  gift  of  the  people. 
Alas  that  so  glorious  a  birthright  should  have  been  bartered 
for  so  mean  a  price. 

During  his  long  public  career,  though  we  admit  that  he  has 
"done  the  State  some  service,"  truth  compels  us  to  say  that  he 
has  also  done  it  much  injury.  Of  his  connection  with  the 
pecuniary  policy  of  the  country,  we  need  only  remark,  that 
he  had  the  peculiar  misfortune  of  living  to  see  the  death  of 
almost  every  question  of  public  policy  of  this  nature  which 
he  took  under  his  special  protection.  But  it  is  the  influence  he 
exerted  when  the  great  question  of  freedom  came  up  for  action 
before  the  councils  of  the  nation,  with  which  the  present 
and  the  future  will  have  most  to  do  in   writing  his  history. 

No  period  in  the  annals  of  the  legislation  of  this  country 
has  possessed  deeper  interest  than  when  Missouri  applied  for 
admission  as  one  of  the  States  of  the  Union.  The  pregnant 
question  was  then  presented — shall  this  Government,  formed 
to  establish  justice  and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty,  falter 
in  its  holy  mission  ?  The  issue  was  watched  with  intense 
interest,  and  the  hopes  of  the  friends  of  humanity  beat  high, 
as  indications  were  given  that  the  right  would  triumph.  But 
in  an  evil  hour  Henry  Clay,  summoning  all  the  intellectual 
powers  he  possessed,  threw  his  influence  into  the  opposite 
scale,  and  gave  the  victory  to  the  side  of  robbery  and  wrong. 
The  result  was  that  Missouri  was  admitted  with  a  Constitution 
making  human  slavery  perpetual ;  and  we  may  add  that  this 
triumph  of  the  slave  power  did  more,  probably,  to  paralyze 
the  efforts  of  the  friends  of  freedom  in  this  country  than  any 
other  single  act  since  the  foundation  of  the  Union. 
-  The  next  issue  presented  was  the  terms  of  the  admission  of 
Arkansas.  When  that  State  presented  her  Constitution  for 
acceptance  on  the  part  of  Congress,  an  amendment  was  of- 
fered providing  for  the  emancipation  of  all  the  slaves  within 
her  bonuds  at  a  given  time.  This  amendment  was  defeated 
by  the  casting  vote  of  Mr.  Clay,  and  slavery  was  thus  left  to 
curse  the  soil  of  Arkansas. 

We  need  hardly  say  that  to  Mr.  Clay,  more  than  to  any  other 
individual,  is  the  country  indebted  for  the  series  of  acts 
known  as  the  Compromise  Measures  of  1850.  It  has  been 
stated  by  his  physician  tbat  the  labor  he  bestowed  and  the 
anxiety  he  felt,  when  these  measures  were  before  Congress, 
did  much  to  shorten  his  life.  We  need  not  here  analyze 
those  measures — they  have  been  fully  discussed,  and  are  now 
fresh  in  the  public  mind. 


96  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

These,  then,  are  some  of  the  most  important  measures  in 
which  Mr.  Clay  acted  a  conspicuous  part,  and  they  will  tell 
more  upon  the  character  of  the  country  than  any  others. 
Those  who  approve  of  them,  will  of  course  feel  prepared  to 
laud  his  memory  for  the  part  he  acted  in  them.  Not  being 
of  that  class,  we  dissent  in  this  particular.  He  has  gone, 
however,  from  the  scene  of  his  earthly  labors,  to  appear  be- 
fore the  Judge  of  all ;  and  it  is  said  by  those  who  were  with 
him  as  his  confidential  friends  during  his  last  illness,  that  he 
looked  forward  with  calmness  to  the  hour  of  his  departure, 
expressing  the  hope  that  he  was  prepared  to  meet  the  great 
change. 

We  would  speak  no  evil  of  the  dead.  Let  the  veil  of  ob- 
livion be  drawn  over  his  vices,  and  let  his  soul  be  left  in  the 
hands  of  a  just  and  merciful  Grod.  But  let  not  the  fulsome 
eulogies  of  a  venal  press  and  a  hireling  pulpit  drown  the 
voice  of  solemn  warning  and  instruction  that  speaks  in  his 
life  and  death. 


Jesus  Christ  Driven  from  the  United  States. 

The  Bible  represents  believers  as  "  one  with  Christ."  They 
draw  their  spiritual  life  from  him,  and  live  in  him  as  part  of 
himself.  "1  am  the  vine,  ye  are  the  branches."  Christ  is  the 
head,  believers  are  the  members;  for  says  the  apostle,  "We 
are  members  of  his  body,  of  his  flesh,  and  of  his  bones." 
Hence  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  regards  things  done  to  his 
children  as  done  to  himself  This  is  repeatedly  and  explicitly 
taught  in  the  Scriptures.  At  the  final  judgment  the  right- 
eous are  rewarded  because  they  ministered  to  Jesus  when  sick 
and  in  prison,  when  a  stranger  and  when  suffering  hunger 
and  thirst.  When  they  inquire  when  they  saw  him  in  want 
and  relieved  him,  he  says,  "Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  to  one  of 
the  least  of  these  my  brethren  ye  did  it  unto  me."  The  wicked 
are  condemned  for  withholding  this  assistance  ;  and  in  an- 
swer to  their  inquiry  it  is  said,  "inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  not  to 
the  least  of  these  my  brethren  ye  did  it  not  to  me."  When 
Saul  of  Tarsus  was  on  his  way  to  Damascus,  the  question  that 
arrested  him  was  "Saul,  Saul,  why  persecutest  thou  me."  In 
reply  to  his  question  "  Who  art  thou  Lord,"  it  was  said,  "I 
am  Jesus  whom  thou  persecutest."  But  it  was  not  Jesus  in 
person  that  Saul  persecuted,  for  he  was  then  in  heaven,  but  it 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  97 

was  Jesus  in  the  person  of  his  disciples.  This  is  a  plain  and 
unquestionable  principle.  Let  us  look  at  some  recent  facts  in 
the  light  of  it. 

By  the  passage  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  large  numbers  of 
professing  Christians  have  been  driven  from  the  United 
States.  One  hundred  and  thirty  members  from  the  Baptist 
(colored)  church  of  Buffalo,  left  for  Canada.  A  large  num- 
ber went  from  the  .Methodist  (colored)  church  of  the  same 
place.  One  hundred  and  twelve  members  of  the  Baptist 
(colored)  church  of  Rochester,  including  their  pastor,  a  na- 
tive Kentuckian  and  a  fugitive,  were  driven  off.  From  the 
colored  church  of  the  same  denomination  in  Detroit  eighty- 
four  members  fled.  Many  others  have  gone  from  other  places. 
All  these  were  forced  to  flee,  contrary  to  their  wishes  and  in- 
terests, by  an  enactment  of  the  American  Congress.  Among 
these  professors  of  religion  are  no  doubt  many  real  Chris- 
tians. They  belong  to  that  class  to  which  in  especial  manner 
"pertain  the  promises,"  for  "hath  not  God  chosen  the  poor 
of  this  world,  rich  in  faith,  and  heirs  of  the  kingdom  which 
he  hath  promised  to  them  that  love  him."  Every  true  Chris- 
tian among  them  is  really  and  spiritually  "one  with  Christ" 
— in  facta  part  of  the  Saviour.  In  the  person  of  every  one 
of  these,  therefore,  has  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  been  driven, 
by  violence,  from  the  United  States. 

The  question  here  arises  who  is  guilty  of  this  fearful  crime  ? 
— a  crime  no  whit  less  than  that  of  nailing  Jesus  to  the  cross, 
and  mocking  his  dying  agonies.  To  this  question  there  can 
be  but  one  answer.  The  authors  and  supporters  of  the  fugi- 
tive slave  bill  are  the  men.  And  these  include  not  merely 
the  evil  Congress  that  enacted  it,  and  the  parties  by  which 
they  were  elected,  but  the  mass  of  the  large  denominations  of 
jirofessing  Christians  in  the  country,  with  one  or  two  exceptions. 
Look  at  facts.  The  vast  majority  of  professors  of  religion 
belong  to  the  Whig  and  Democratic  parties,  by  which  the 
fugitive  slave  bill  was  enacted.  They,  therefore,  voted  for  the 
men  by  whom  it  was  passed.  Being  done  by  their  agents, 
therefore,  it  was  done  by  themselves.  Again  :  the  leading 
doctors  and  ministers  of  these  churches  have  come  out  in 
justification,  or  extenuation  of  the  bill,  and  in  opposition  to 
its  repeal.  Large  ecclesiastical  courts  of  these  bodies,  after 
discussing  the  matter  for  days,  refused  to  express  the  slightest 
opposition  to  it,  and  recommended  obedience  to  its  provisions. 
These  facts  are  notorious  and  unquestionable. 

Again  :  the  man  who   advocates  a  principle   or   supports  a 

9 


98  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

measure,  is  individually  guilty  of  all  the  evils  flowing  natu- 
rally from  that  principle  or  measure.  If  I  deny  the  existence 
of  God,  and  the  truth  of  the  Scriptures,  I  am  guilty  of  all 
the  evils  flowing  from  the  atheism  and  infidelity  I  advocate. 
If  others  proclaim  the  same  doctrine,  their  guilt  is  just  the 
same  as  mine.  Crime  does  not  divide  into  fractional  portions, 
so  that  each  of  twenty  millions,  that  commit  a  single  murder, 
is  one  twenty-millionth  of  a  murderer.  There  are  in  such  a 
case  twenty  millions  of  full-sized  murderers.  In  the  light  of 
this  principle,  then,  we  see  that  every  church  which  by  silent 
acquiescence  or  avowed  defense,  upholds  the  fugitive  bill,  is 
guilty  of  all  the  wrongs  and  crimes  flowing  from  it.  Among 
these  crimes  is  the  forcible  expulsion  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
from  the  territories  of  the  United  States.  We  defy  the  world 
to  successfully  controvert  this  conclusion.  The  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  in  the  jyerson  of  his  poor  discijiles,  has  heen  driven  from 
the  United  States  hy  his  oivn  professed  cliurches. 

The  conclusion  just  stated  would  seem  to  throw  considera- 
ble light  on  the  mooted  question,  whether  these  churches  are 
really  churches  of  Christ.  Are  churches  which  drive  the 
Saviour  from  the  country,  through  the  fugitive  slave  bill  which 
they  uphold,  the  churches  of  Christ?  With  just  as  much 
propriety  might  we  ask,  were  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  who 
crucified  the  Saviour  his  disciples  ? 

It  seems  to  us  high  time  that  the  advocates  of  secession 
from  slaveholding  and  slave-catching  churches,  should  cease 
admitting  that  these  are  churches  of  Christ.  This  viay  be 
the  fact,  but  it  is  not  a  fact  to  be  assumed  on  one  side  and 
conceded  on  the  other.  The  evidence  at  this  day  is  prima 
facie  against  it.  Facts  like  those  adverted  to  above,  and  many 
others,  are  fearfully  against  the  claim  of  the  leading  sects  of 
this  country  to  be  the  churches  of  Christ.  It  can,  therefore, 
only  be  admitted  on  evidence  of  the  most  direct  and  unques- 
tionable character. 

But  it  may  be  said  that  a  part  of  these  churches  protest 
against  and  oppose  the  fugitive  bill,  and  similar  abominations. 
This  is  true,  but  these  protesters  are  not  the  churches  to 
which  they  belong,  but  on  the  contrary  a  despised  and  insig- 
nificant minority.  Their  number  is  becoming  every  year  less, 
and  their  voice  of  remonstrance  more  feeble.  Their  princi- 
ples and  measures  are  utterly  repudiated  by  the  vast  majority 
in  the  churches  to  which  they  belong.  The  claim,  there- 
fore, that  these  churches  are  not  apostate,  because  a  few  op- 
pose the  reigning  policy  and  practice  of  the  church,  would 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  99 

apply  with  equal  force  to  the  apostate  Church  of  Rome.  God 
has  doubtless  "  a  people  "  in  her  communion,  but  that  fact 
makes  her  none  the  less  "  the  Mother  of  Harlots."  Yet  what 
has  Kome  ever  sanctioned  worse  than  the  fugitive  slave  bill  ? 
What  has  she  ever  done  that  was  worse  than  expelling  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  from  the  country? 


Is  IT  Consistent  for  Free  Presbyterians  to  Commune 
WITH  Churches  which  Fellowship  Slavery  ? 

This  question  has  been  submitted  to  us  by  a  brother.  We 
answer  it  by  asking  another  :  Is  it  consistent  for  a  man,  after 
signing  a  total  abstinence  pledge,  to  tipple  occasionally  ?  Or 
for  a  ''^penitent  thief,"  after  professing  reformation,  to  pilfer 
on  occasions?  The  very  ground  on  which  Free  Presbyterians 
left  the  communion  of  the  Old  and  New  School  Presbyterian 
Churches,  was  that  membership  in  those  churches  involved 
them  in  the  guilt  of  religious  fellowship  with  slaveholders. 
The  Presbyterian  theory  of  the  Church  is  that  it  is  a  unit, 
that  each  particular  congregation  is  a  part  of  one  body  -which 
is  made  up  of  all  the  several  congregations  comprised  in  its 
communion.  It  follows  that  a  communion  table  spread  in  an 
Old  or  New  School  Church  in  Ohio,  has  an  end  stretching 
into  Georgia  and  South  Carolina,  and  that  he  who  takes  his 
seat  at  the  Ohio  end,  acknowledges  as  a  Christian  brother  him 
who  sits  at  the  Georgia  end. 

This  theoretical  unity  is  made  visible  to  the  world  in  the 
Synods  and  General  Assemblies  of  these  churches.  In  these 
ecclesiastical  gatherings  the  representatives  of  the  churches 
from  all  parts  of  the  Union  meet  together.  The  slaveholder 
from  xllabama,  who  openly  and  defiantly  affirms  that  he  "  buys, 
sells  and  holds  his  fellow-beings  for  gain,"  takes  his  seat  at  the 
council  board  and  around  the  communion  table  with  the 
Abolitionist  from  Wisconsin,  who  holds  with  the  General 
Assembly  of  1798,  that  "  slaveholding  is  the  highest  kind  of 
theft,  and  the  slaveholder  a  sinner  of  the  first  rank."  As 
these  churches  jog  now,  these  antipodes  meet,  shake  hands, 
sit  down  in  council  together,  take  their  place  side  by  side  at 
the  Lord's  Supper,  while  the  infidel  world  looks  on  and  be- 
holding this  attempted  fellowship  of  Christ  with  Belial,  sneer- 
ingly  exclaims,  "  Behold  how  good  and  how  pleasant  it  is  for 
brethren  to  dwell  tofjether  in  unitv  !  " 


100  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

Now  this  communion,  thus  rendered  visible,  extends  to  all 
the  members  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  These  Synods  and 
General  Assemblies  are  representative  bodies,  and  their  con- 
stituents are  all  the  members  of  the  church, — men,  women 
and  children.  Every  member  of  the  church,  therefore,  is  in 
the  closest  possible  religious  fellowship  with  every  other. 
Hence  we  repeat,  the  act  of  communing  with  a  local  Old  or 
New  School  Presbyterian  church  in  a  free  State,  is  an  act  of 
fellowship  with  the  whole  church,  including  their  thousands 
of  slaveholders.  For  a  Free  Presbyterian  to  do  this  is  to 
commit  the  very  sin  of  holding  religious  fellowship  with 
slaveholders,  to  get  free  from  which  was  the  very  object  of 
seceding  from  those  churches  and  organizing  a  separate  eccle- 
siastical body.  Such  Free  Presbyterians  had  a  great  deal 
better  stayed  in  their  former  connection. 

We  have  known  a  very  few  nominal  Free  Presbyterians — 
men  molded  after  the  fashion  of  Ephraim  of  old — who  from 
the  very  hour  of  their  deliverance  from  their  spiritual  Egypt, 
were  seized  with  a  strange  hankering  after  its  leeks  and  onions, 
and  flesh  pots.  They  would  go  still  to  the  communion  of  the 
church  they  had  left,  thus  stultifying  themselves,  causing  the 
enemy  to  rejoice,  and  weakening  the  testimony  of  their  breth- 
ren. We  had  the  conduct  of  one  of  these  half-baked  profes- 
sors once  brought  up  in  argument  by  a  venerable  doctor  of 
divinity  now  dead,  lo  prove  that  Free  Presbyterians  acted  in- 
consistently with  their  profession.  We  could  only  reply  that 
the  man  was  an  exception  to  the  generality  of  the  members  Of 
our  church,  and  was  acting  most  inconsistently.  From  such 
members  may  the  good  Lord  in  mercy  deliver  all  our  churches. 

These  men  of  course  have  the  privilege  of  remaining  in 
the  fellowship  of  the  slaveholding  churches.  But  they  have 
no  moral  right  to  leave  the  communion  of  these  churches, 
unite  with  those  who  are  free  from  fellowship  with  that  un- 
fruitful work  of  darkness,  slavery,  and  then  go  back  to  their 
former  connection.  By  such  a  course  they  convict  themselves 
of  folly  and  inconsistency,  and  bring  weakness  and  reproach 
on  those  who  are  testifying  against  the  sin  of  holding  reli- 
gious fellowship  with  slavery. 


Radical  and  Conservative. 

It  has  become  the  fashion  of  the  hunker  presses  and  preach- 
ers in   this  country  to  represent  the  principles  expressed  by 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  101 

these  terms  as  tlie  opposites  of  each  other,  and  to  apply  the 
first  term  to  reformers  as  a  term  of  reproach,  and  the  second  to 
themselves  as  a  term  of  praise.  But  there  is  no  opposition 
between  true  radicalism  and  true  conservatism,  while  there  is 
a  very  wide  difference  between  the  latter  and  hunkerism. 
Genuine  radicalism  is  laying  the  ax  at  the  root  of  evils,  while 
true  conservatism  is  holding  fast  that  which  is  good.  The 
one  therefore  is  the  complement  of  the  other.  The  most 
ultra  radical  may  be  the  truest  conservative.  The  best,  and 
indeed  the  only  way  of  preserving  what  is  good,  is  to  root  out 
the  opposing  evil. 

This  is  true  of  individuals,  and  true  of  society.  The  love 
of  falsehood  must  be  eradicated  from  the  mind  before  the 
truth  can  be  implanted  and  cherished.  The  ax  must  be  laid 
at  the  root  of  selfishness,  lust,  pride  and  hatred,  before  the 
graces  of  benevolence,  purity,  humility  and  love  can  grow  in 
the  soul.  He  who  would  preserve  his  soul  from  sin  and  ruia 
must  abhor  and  root  out  that  which  is  evil,  and  cleave  to  that 
which  is  good. 

So,  also,  in  society.  Evil  and  good,  light  and  darkness, 
justice  and  injustice,  peace  and  discord,  can  not  co-exist. 
Neither  can  opposing  laws,  customs  and  institutions  exist  and 
operate  in  harmony.  The  good  and  the  bad  are  destructive 
of  each  other,  and  one  must  finally  prevail  to  the  extinction 
of  the  other.  Hence  the  truest  conservatism  of  good  is  in 
seeking  the  most  speedy  and  thorough  eradication  of  the  bad. 
It  follows  that  genuine  radicalism  and  conservatism  instead 
of  opposing,  CO- operate  harmoniously  together. 

On  the  contrary  there  is  not  only  a  wide  difference,  but 
oftentimes  a  total  antagonism  between  true  conservatism  and 
hunkerism.  While  the  former  will  preserve  only  what  is 
good,  the  latter  will  maintain  the  existing  order  of  things, 
whether  good  or  bad,  simply  because  it  is  the  existing  order  of 
things.  Its  motto  is  the  atheistic  sentiment,  "  Whatever  is,  is 
right."  Whatever  is  received  and  established  as  law  and  custom, 
it  will  preserve  whether  right  or  wrong.  Hence  it  often  comes 
to  pass  that  the  hunker  will  at  one  time  defend  with  the  ut- 
most obstinacy,  laws  and  customs  which  at  other  times  he  has 
most  bitterly  opposed.  True  to  his  one  idea  of  resisting  all 
change  and  all  reform,  he  is  a  bundle  of  contradictions.  Con- 
sistency with  his  ruling  principle  leads  him  into  endless 
inconsistency.  With  him  the  destructive  radicalism  of  to-day, 
is  the  object  of  his  intensest  conservatism  to-morrow. 

True   conservatism   has   nothing  in   common  with   such   a 


102  LIFE    AND   WRITINGS    OF 

spirit  as  this.  It  is  not  in  haste  to  adopt  proposed  changes, 
for  in  its  vocabulary  chan^^e  and  reform  are  not  synonymous 
terms.  Neither  is  it  doggedly  bent  on  maintaining  estab- 
lished laws  and  institutions,  simply  because  they  are  estab- 
lished. But  examining  carefully  into  first  principles,  it 
accepts  what  is  good  and  rejects  what  is  evil.  It  "  proves  all 
things,  and  holds  fast  that  which  is  good." 

It  is  evident  from  these  principles,  that  those  in  this  coun- 
try who  are  laboring  to  abolish  slavery,  both  in  Church  and 
State,  are  the  true  conservatives ;  while  the  politicians  and 
Drs.  of  Divinity  who  seek  to  maintain  that  system  are  radi- 
cals of  the  worst  and  most  dangerous  character.  Both  slavery 
and  freedom  have  been  "  proved  "  by  their  fruits — the  one  to 
be  the  prolific  parent  of  every  conceivable  crime  and  abomina- 
tion, the  other  to  be  the  source  of  numberless  blessings.  The 
abolitionists  see  that  the  only  way  to  hold  fast  the  latter  is  to 
abolish  the  former.  Both  can  not  exist.  They  are  in  utter 
and  deadly  antagonism.  If  slavery  lives  freedom  must  die. 
Hence  it  follows  that  he  who  is  truly  conservative  of  liberty 
is  radically  destructive  of  slavery.  The  radicalism  that  lays 
the  ax  to  the  root  of  this  upas  of  oppression,  is  near  akin  to 
the  conservatism  that  would  water  and  cherish  the  tree  of 
liberty. 

Schism. 

Schism,  in  the  Church,  stands  opposed  to  Unity,  and  signi- 
fies division.  On  no  subject  do  more  confused  and  mistaken 
notions  prevail.  Very  many  members  of  the  church,  and 
preachers  too,  who  pass  for  intelligent  men,  think  that  schism 
is  nothing  else  than  leaving  a  visible  church  organization.  If 
this  were  correct  then  all  Protestants  are  schismatics ;  for  all 
the  various  sects  among  them  are  secessions,  more  or  less 
remote,  from  the  visible  organizations  of  the  Catholic  Church. 
Nay,  Christianity  itself  is  schism,  for  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
and  his  apostles  left  the  Jewish  Church  organization,  and 
formed  the  Christian  Church.  Christ  having  solemnly  excom- 
municated the  Jews  when  he  said,  "  The  kingdom  of  God  shall 
be  taken  from  you,  and  given  to  a  nation  bringing  forth  the 
fruits  of  righteousness,"  afterward,  on  the  night  preceding 
his  betrayal,  organized  his  immediate  followers  in  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  and  thus,  without  being  excommunicated,  seceded 
from  thjit  visible  ohuroli  organization.     Thus,  this  notion  of 


REV.   JOSEPH    GORDON.  108 

schism,  if  true,  would  uncliurcli  the  very  men  themselves  who 
hold  it. 

Another  class  hold  those  schismatics  who  proclaim  the 
whole  counsel  of  God,  when  a  portion  of  a  professed  church 
reject  portions  of  it :  and  urge  discipline  for  sins  which  have 
become  popular  and  prevalent.  That  this  course  will  often 
divide,  and  even  break  up  professed  churches,  is  certain.  It 
is  not  therefore  schism,  however.  The  church  that  is  divided 
by  preaching  the  whole  truth  of  God,  is  necessarily,  in  part 
or  in  whole,  apostate.  The  church  that  can  not  bear  the 
whole  truth  on  every  subject,  is  living  in  practical  rebellion. 
It  is  therefore  nonsense  to  say,  that  dividing  such  a  church  is 
causing  division  in  the  body  of  Christ,  for  it  forms  no  part  of 
his  mystical  body. 

Schism  may  exist  in  a  church,  which  yet  retains  an  exter- 
nal appearance  of  unity.  Outward  union  and  inward  discord 
are  found  often  together.  Paul  says  to  the  Corinthian  church, 
"  I  hear  that  there  be  division^  among  you,  and  I  partly  be- 
lieve it."  The  word  translated  divisions  is,  scismata,  the 
Greek  for  schism.  That  this  would  be  a  correct  translation 
all  scholars  admit.  Here  while  no  secessions  were  taking 
place,  there  was  divisions  or  schisms  among  the  members  of 
the  church  of- Corinth.  Indeed,  schisms  of  the  very  worst 
description  have  been  most  common  in  the  Church,  when  out- 
ward union  of  organization  was  most  compact.  The  Jews 
were  schismatic  every  time  they  turned  aside  to  the  worship 
of  idols.  When  most  devoted  to  religious  forms  and  cere- 
monies they  were  guilty  of  causing  wicked  divisions.  They  even 
made  those  religious  exercises  the  occasion  of  such  divisions. 
"  Behold,"  says  God,  "  ye  fast  for  strife  and  debate,  and  to  smite 
with  the  fist  of  wickedness."  When  they  rejected  the  mes- 
sengers of  God,  ''  killed  the  prophets  and  stoned  those  that 
were  sent  unto  them,"  they  were  yet  visibly  organized  into 
one  church.  The  word  of  God  through  the  prophets,  by 
stirring  up  their  rebellious  passions,  occasioned  strife  and 
divisions.  On  the  principle  of  many  modern  interpreters 
these  prophets  were  schismatics.  They  "  caused  divisions," 
by  denouncing  popular  sins,  such  as  oppression  and  cruelty. 
Yet  the  Jews  who  practiced  these  wrongs,  were  the  true  schis- 
matics ;  while  the  prophets  who  faithfully  proclaim  God's  will 
were  doing  what  could  alone  produce  true  unity. 

This  point  may  be  illustrated  in  a  simple  way.  Suppose  a 
father  to  lay  down  right  and  proper  rules  for  the  government 


104  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

of  his  family.  He  leaves  his  house  for  awhile,  and  on  leaving 
commands  his  children  to  obey  during  his  absence,  the  laws 
of  the  household.  The  children,  however,  all  find  a  strong 
propensity  to  do  something  the  father  has  forbidden.  In  his 
absence  they  fall  into  these  practices,  and  all  agree  that  they 
will  disobey  the  father.  Now  there  may  be  perfect  unity,  of 
a  certain  kind,  in  that  family.  The  children  all  agree  that  it 
is  necessary  to  their  peace  and  quiet  that  some  of  the  father's 
just  commands  should  be  violated.  Is  this  a  righteous  unity? 
Is  it  honorable  to  the  father?  Suppose  further,  that  one  or 
more  of  the  children  become  convinced  of  the  wickedness  of 
their  conduct  and  resolve  to  reform.  They  begin  to  remon- 
strate with  the  other  members  of  the  family,  on  account  of 
their  disobedience.  At  once  the  cry  of  schism  is  raised  by  the 
offenders.  They  gravely  assert  that  the  peace  and  prosperity 
of  the  family  imperatively  demand,  that  all  such  "  distracting 
subjects"  as  that  of  filial  obedience,  ought  not  to  be  agitated. 
It  is  easy  to  see  in  this  case  who  are  in  the  wrong  and  who 
in  the  right.  It  is  also  obvious,  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  re- 
pentant children  to  rebuke  the  others,  and  urge  them  to 
change  their  course,  even  if  the  entire  disruption  of  the  family 
should  be  the  result. 

This  case  illustrates  several  points.  The  Church  of  God  is 
his  spiritual  family.  Now  a  peace  in  that  Church,  which  is 
founded  on  open  or  tacit  agreement  to  disregard  some  of  his 
commands,  is  a  false  peace.  It  is  most  dishonorable  to  God, 
and  must  prove  ruinous  to  man.  It  is  also  evident  that  it  is 
the  duty  of  all  God's  obedient  children  to  urge  his  claims  to 
the  obedience  of  all ;  and  especially  to  denounce  and  warn 
against  those  particular  acts  of  disobedience  that  are  most 
prevalent. 

Now,  whenever  it  is  necessary  to  the  peace  of  a  church  that 
anti-slavery  truth,  or  truth  bearing  on  the  subject  of  temper- 
ance, must  not  be  preached,  then  that  peace  is  spurious  and 
false.  Those  who  talk  of  it  "  cry  peace,  peace,  when  there  is 
no  peace."  God's  express  command  is,  to  "open  the  mouth 
of  the  dumb,  and  plead  the  cause  of  the  poor  and  needy." 
Every  professed  Christian,  minister  or  layman,  who  neglects 
this  command,  who  does  not  plead  the  cause  of  the  slave,  the 
poorest  of  all  God's  poor,  is  guilty  of  disobeying  his  Heavenly 
Father.  Hence,  as  in  the  case  of  the  family,  it  is  better  that 
such  a  church  should  be  broken  up  entirely  than  continue  a 
union  founded  on  open  breach  of  God's  command. 


REV.   JOSEPH    aOllDON.  105 

Again  :  it  is  evident  in  such  a  case  that  the  real  schismatics 
are  not  those  who  obey  God's  command  to  plead  for  the  poor, 
but  those  who  reject  the  truth,  and  refuse  to  do  likewise.  It 
is  not  in  such  a  case  a  question  of  numbers.  If  there  were 
ten  disobedient  and  one  obedient  child  in  a  family,  that  one 
child  would  be  the  only  one  entitled  to  a  place  in  the  father's 
household.  The  others  by  their  disobedience  cut  themselves 
off  from  the  name  and  privileges  of  children.  So  in  the 
Church — Grod's  spiritual  family.  If  but  ten  obey  God's  com- 
mand to  plead  for  the  poor,  as  well  as  all  other  commands,  and 
ten  thousand  disobey  it,  those  ten  are  God's  true  family,  his 
true  Church.  If  cast  out  for  their  faithfulness,  or  withdraw- 
ing to  avoid  participation  in  the  disobedience  of  the  majority, 
God  still  owns  them  as  his  true  spiritual  household. 

There  are  then  but  two  ways  of  committing  the  sin  of 
schism  ;  one  is  by  disobeying  the  laws  of  God  in  the  Church  : 
the  other  by  withdrawing  from  any  branch  of  the  visible 
church  without  a  sufficient  reason.  An  example  of  the  first 
is  found  in  every  member  of  the  church  that  does  not  labor 
and  pray,  and  do  all  in  his  power  for  the  deliverance  of  the 
slave.  God's  express  command  to  all  his  professed  children 
is,  "  Remember  those  in  bonds,  as  bound  with  them.^'  That  is 
feel  and  act  and  pray  for  the  oppressed  the  same  as  you  would 
if  you  were  yourself  in  bondage  ;  or  do  for  them  as  you  would 
wish  others  to  do  for  you  in  that  condition.  Now,  true  unity 
among  God's  followers,  consists  very  much  in  a  cheerful, 
affectionate  obedience  to  his  will,  therefore  to  habitually  break 
this  command  by  doing  and  feeling  nothing  for  those  in 
bonds,  is  directly  destroying  the  unity  of  the  Church  ;  and  is 
schism  of  the  very  worst  description. 

In  regard  to  withdrawal  from  any  professed  church,  if  the 
toleration  and  practice  of  the  "  sum  of  all  villainies  "  in  such 
church  is  not  just  cause  of  secession,  then  there  never  can  be 
such  cause.  If  the  churches  of  this  land,  should  search  for 
a  system  of  crime  for  the  express  purpose  of  apostatizing, 
through  its  reception  to  their  communion  they  could  find 
none  so  bad  as  slavery  which  they  have  thus  received.  Their 
cordial  welcome  of  those  practicing  this  "  most  atrocious  of  all 
institutions  "  to  their  communion  tables,  is  schismatical  to 
the  last  degree.  It  follows  that  the  course  of  those  churches, 
which  have  excluded  these  criminals  from  their  communion, 
is  to  the  same  extent  promotive  of  the  real  unity  of  the  Church. 
10 


106  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS  Oi' 

Christian  Union. 

This  subject  is  just  now  occupying  a  large  share  of  the  at- 
tention of  various  churches.  This  fact  is  our  apology,  if  any 
apology  is  needed,  for  the  space  we  devote  to  it.  On  our  first 
page  will  be  found  a  discussion  on  this  question  in  the  Gen- 
eral Synod  of  the  Reformed  Presbyterian,  or  New  Side  Cove- 
nanter Church. — The  same  subject  occupied  the  largest  por- 
tion of  the  time  of  the  Associate,  or  Seceder  Synod,  which 
met  a  week  or  two  since,  in  Xenia.  The  conclusions  at 
which  they  arrived,  will  be  found  in  another  place,  and  indi- 
cate a  decided  advance  in  the  right  direction.  The  Union 
of  the  Associate  Reformed,  Seceder  and  X.  S.  Covenanter 
Churches,  appears  to  us  far  more  likely  to  be  accomplished 
now,  than  it  has  ever  seemed  before.  The  bigots  in  these 
bodies  may  succeed  in  delaying  the  consummation,  but  it  is 
sure  to  come  ere  long. 

A  proposal  for  the  union  of  the  Reformed  Presbyterians 
and  the  Free  Presbyterian  Church  of  Canada,  is  now  under 
discussion  in  that  province,  and  some  late  indications  are 
promising.  Of  the  proposed  union  between  the  United 
Brethren  in  Christ.  Wesleyan  Methodists,  and  Evangelical 
Association,  our  readers  are  already  informed. 

These  various  movements  toward  the  same  point,  arc  full 
of  significance.  In  the  first  place,  they  are  without  concert. 
Each  is  impelled  forward  in  this  movement  by  a  power  with- 
in itself.  It  is  not  the  result  of  a  concerted  and  previously 
arranged  plan.  Hence,  it  is  manifest  that  the  hand  of  God 
is  in  it.  There  can  be  no  doubt  in  the  mind  of  the  Christian 
that  these  various  churches  are  moved  upon  by  the  Spirit  of 
God;  and  that  the  desire  for  union  is  his  suggestion.  How 
else  can  we  account  for  the  fact  that  churches  having  no  out- 
ward fellowship  with  each  other,  and  which  are  supposed  to 
be  widely  apart  in  doctrine  and  order,  should  simultaneously 
and  without  consultation,  start  forward  with  zeal  and  energy 
in  the  holy  work  of  gathering  into  one  the  scattered  frag- 
ments of  the  Saviour's  family? 

Another  significant  fact  is  that  this  movement  is  confined 
to  the  anti-slavery  churches  of  this  country.  Among  the 
pro-slavery  churches  the  tendency  is  toward  wider  division. 
The  New  School  Presbyterians  and  Congregationalists  are 
srettins:  further  apart  every  day.  Each  of  these  denominations 
has  been  seized  of  late  with  an  intense  sectarian  spirit,  which 
is  the  very  essence  of  the  spirit  of  disunion.     The  Old  and 


KEV.   JOSEPH    GORDON.  107 

New  School  Presbyterians  are  more  completely  at  arm's 
length  to-day  than  they  have  been  since  the  excision  of  1837. 
The  Methodist  Church  has  divided  once,  and  there  are 
symptoms  of  a  second  rupture  in  the  Northern  branch,  grow- 
ing out  of  the  efforts  of  the  living  piety  within  it,  to  throw 
off  the  dead  carcass  of  slavery.  But  among  the  churches 
which  exclude  slavcholding  and  its  kindred  evils,  this  sim- 
ultaneous, movement  for  closer  union  has  commenced,  and 
the  spirit  of  unity  and  brotherly  love  is  becoming  more  and 
more  prevalent.  Now  this  fact  certainly  means  something, 
and  we  think  it  is  not  difficult  to  read  its  significance.  An 
anti-slavery  religion  can  alone  save  the  world,  for  no  other 
religion  is  Christianity.  A  pro-slavery  religion  is  the  religion 
of  hell,  and  to  call  it  Christianity  is  to  blaspheme  the  Son  of 
God.  The  Church  is  the  agency  appointed  by  Christ  for 
preaching  and  extending  his  gospel  over  the  earth.  To  do 
this  successfully,  she  must  be  a  united  church.  This  is  clear- 
ly implied  in  the  prayer  of  the  Saviour,  John  xvii  :  20,  21. 
Again,  the  time  for  the  universal  establishment  of  the  king- 
dom of  Christ  on  earth  is  near  at  hand.  All  interpreters  of 
prophesy  agree  in  this.  The  time  of  the  birth  of  the  Saviour 
was  not  more  clearly  foretold,  than  the  time  of  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Man  of  Sin,  and  all  antichristian  powers,  and  the 
establishment  of  the  Redeemer's  reign  ;  and  upon  this  time  we 
are  just  verging.  But  the  only  church  that  he  can  use  as  an 
instrument  for  this  work,  is  a  church  which  embraces  his  re- 
ligion, which  is  a  religion  at  vv'ar  with  slavery  in  all  its  forms, 
at  war  with  drunkenness,  secresy,  popery,  and  every  system 
of  darkness  and  oppression.  Is  it  then  presumptuous  to  con- 
clude that  God  is  bringing  the  churches  which  embody  this 
religion,  into  one,  in  order  to  use  them  as  his  instrument  for 
the  triumphant  establishment  of  his  kingdom  of  righteous- 
ness on  earth? 

We  may  be  sneeringly  asked  at  this  point,  if  we  mean  to 
teach  that  to  the  comparatively  small  baud  of  anti-slavery 
Christians  alone  will  be  committed  the  mighty  work  of  prop- 
agating the  gospel  over  the  earth;  and  if  no  use  will  be  made 
of  the  Christians  in  the  large  and  popular  church  organiza- 
tions of  this  country? — We  mean  nothing  of  the  kind.  We 
have  never  doubted  that  the  Lord  has  thousands  of  his  own 
blood-bought  people  in  the  slaveholding  churches  of  this  land, 
and  we  have  no  doubt  that  he  will  use  them  as  honored  in- 
struments for  the  establishment  of  his  kingdom.  But  we 
have  just  as  little  doubt  that  he  will  bring  them  out  of  their 


108  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS  OF 

pro-slavery  church  organizations,  before  they  will  be  made 
largely  useful  in  this  work.  These  organizations  are  anti- 
christian.  An  organization,  whether  ecclesiastical  or  political, 
which  supports  slavery,  is  of  neccssify  antichristian,  for  slavery 
in  its  every  element  is  anti-Christ.  Hence,  before  the  Saviour's 
reign  on  earth  can  become  universal,  these  organizations  must 
be  destroyed,  just  as  the  Roman  Catholic  hierarchy  must  bo 
destroyed.  But  the  Lord's  people  in  these  corrupt  bodies 
will  be  brought  out,  and  united  with  those  already  out  in  one 
mighty  phalanx,  for  the  last  and  triumphant  onset  upon  the 
kingdom  of  the  Devil. 

This  thought  suggests  another  mighty  reason  for  the  union 
of  the  anti-slavery  reforming  churches  of  the  land.  United, 
their  power  to  break  up  the  antichristian,  pro-slavery  church 
organizations  of  the  country,  would  be  ten-fold  what  it  is 
now;  and,  united,  their  moral  power  would  irresistibly  draw 
the  pure  members  of  these  corrupt  churches  to  themselves. 
There  will  be  a  moral  power  and  grandeur  in  the  spectacle  of 
all  the  reformed  and  reforming  churches  of  this  land,  laying 
aside  the  shibboleths  that  have  heretofore  divided  them,  and 
coming  together  on  the  foundation  of  Christian  purity,  and 
in  the  spirit  of  Christian  love,  which  would  be  irresistible. 
Before  the  combined  influence  of  this  host  made  mighty 
through  the  living  God,  the  huge  ecclesiastical  structures 
which  constitute  the  bulwarls  of  American  slavei-y  would  be 
broken  in  pieces,  and  all  the  living,  spiritual  stones  in  them 
would  be  gathered  together  and  builded  into  tiiis  new  and 
holy  temple  of  the  Lord. 

The  efi'ect  of  all  this  on  the  conversion  of  the  world,  opens 
a  theme  so  vast  and  grand  that  we  can  hardly  trust  our  pen 
to  touch  upon  it.  Emancipated  from  their  bonds,  as  the 
slaves  would  then  soon  be,  educated  and  Christianized,  they 
would  become  missionaries  to  the  land  of  their  fathers ;  and 
through  their  instrumentality,  "  Ethiopia  would  soon  stretch 
forth  her  hands  unto  God."  The  religion  of  this  country, 
cut  free  from  the  incubus  that  has  hitherto  weighed  it  to  the 
dust,  and  with  the  warm,  fresh  blood  of  freedom  in  its  veins, 
would  start  forward  anew  in  the  missionary  work,  with  an 
energy  and  success  that  would  find  their  only  parallel  in  the 
Apostolic  times. 

If  we  have  read  aright  the  indications  of  God's  providence 
in  the  union  movements  of  our  day,  it  follows  irresistibly 
that  those  who  oppose  these  movements  are  planting  them- 


REV.  JOSEPH  GORDON.  109 

selves  directly  atliwart  the  path  of  the  Divine  purposes  and 
operations.     A  fearful  responsibility  is  theirs ! 


Unity  op  the  Church. 

The  unity  of  the  Church  is  its  oneness.  The  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  distinctly  intimated  that  his  Church  should  be  one  : 

"  That  they  all  may  be  one  ;  as  thou,  Father,  arl  in  me, 
and  I  in  thee,  that  they  also  may  be  one  in  us  ;  that  the  world 
may  believe  that  thou  has  sent  me. 

"  And  the  glory  which  thou  gavest  me  I  have  given  them  ; 
that  they  may  be  one,  even  as  we  are  one. 

"  I  in  them,  and  thou  in  me,  that  they  may  be  made  perfect 
in  one ;  and  that  the  world  may  know  that  thou  hast  sent  me, 
and  hast  loved  them  as  thou  hast  loved  me." — John  17  : 
20—23. 

The  Church  of  Christ  is  his  appointed  instrumentality  for 
the  salvation  of  the  world.  Its  power  as  such  depends  on  its 
unity.  Its  union  is  its  strength.  It  is,  therefore,  very 
important  to  know  wherein  this  unity  consists;  how  it  is 
destroyed  and  how  it  may  be  promoted. 

The  oneness  of  the  Church  does  not  imply  that  all  its  mem- 
bers are  exactly  equal  in  bodily  and  mental  power ;  that  they 
shall  be  equally  learned  and  wise ;  follow  the  same  calling  in 
life,  and  believe  exactly  alike  on  all  scientific,  political  or 
historical  questions.  These  are  simple  impossibilities  in  this 
world.  Again  :  it  is  not  essential  to  the  true  unity  of  the 
Church  that  all  its  members  should  believe  exactly  alike  on 
all  religious  subjects ;  that  they  have  the  same  spiritual  gifts, 
and  possess  in  equal  measure  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Diversities  of  mental  structure  are  the  work  of  God,  and  so 
long  as  these  exist,  men  will  differ  in  their  modes  of  thought 
and  expression,  in  the  views  they  take  of  various  questions, 
and  also  in  their  religious  experience  and  exercises.  A  vast 
variety  in  all  these  is  consistent  with  the  highest  degree  of 
Scriptural  unity.  "  For  there  are  diversities  of  gifts,  but  the 
same  spirit.  And  there  are  differences  of  administrations, 
but  the  same  Lord.  And  there  are  diversities  of  operations; 
but  it  is  the  same  God  that  worketh  all  in  all." 

Wherein,  then,  does  the  unity  of  the  Church,  or  the  oneness 
of  believers  consist? 


110  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS  OF 

1.  In  the  harmonious  blending  of  these  various  "diversi- 
ties "  in  one  body.  Instead  of  causing  divisions,  these  diflPer- 
ences  of  character,  gifts,  etc.,  are  designed  to  produce  the 
directly  contrary  effect.  They  are  all  essential  to  a  perfect 
church,  just  as  all  the  members  are  necessary  to  a  perfect 
body.  This  is  the  figure  of  the  apostle  :  "  For  as  we  have 
many  members  in  one  body,  and  all  members  have  not  the 
same  office,  so  we  being  many  are  one  body  in  Christ," 
These  varied  gifts  and  characteristics  fit  the  members  of  the 
Church  of  Christ  for  the  different  posts  of  labor  in  the 
Church.  Through  them  believers  are  fitted  to  encourage, 
strengthen,  aid  and  comfort  each  other.  The  lofty  courage 
of  one  blends  with  the  timid  gentleness  of  another,  and  by 
the  mutual  union  both  are  benefited.  The  ardent  hopes  of 
one  preserves  others  from  despair,  while  the  humble  fears  of 
the  latter  saves  the  former  from  presumption.  Thus  are  the 
members  of  the  Church  fitted  "  to  bear  each  others  burdens, 
and  so  fulfil  the  law  of  Christ."  So,  also,  are  the  followers  of 
Christ  fitted  for  the  various  duties  connected  with  the  propa- 
gation of  the  gospel.  As  in  its  first  proclamation,  the  daring 
courage  of  Peter,  the  loving  gentleness  of  John,  and  the 
iron  energy  of  Paul  were  all  required,  and  all  answered  their 
end  ;  so  now  the  various  gifts  of  Christians  are  all  to  be 
brought  and  consecrated  on  the  altar  of  the  Saviour.  And 
when  each  one  comes  forward  to  do  the  work  for  which  God 
has  fitted  him,  and  as  one  united  host  the  Church  moves  on 
in  the  strength  of  this  union,  the  triumph  of  the  cause  of 
Christ  will  not  be  distant.  Unity  amid  diversity  is  universal 
among  the  works  of  God,  and  of  this,  such  a  church  will  be 
a  beautiful  example. 

2.  A  second  thing  essential  to  the  unity  of  the  Church,  is 
the  belief  of  all  its  members  in  the  fundamental  truths  of 
the  Bible.  While  opinions  may  differ  as  to  what  are  and  are 
not  essential  truths,  every  one  will  admit  that  the  belief  of 
some  truths  is  necessary  to  make  men  Christians.  For 
instance,  they  must  believe  that  such  a  person  as  Jesus  Christ 
lived,  taught,  wrought  miracles,  was  crucified,  rose  from  the 
grave  and  ascended  to  heaven.  Christianity  is  revealed  in 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments.  To  deny  these  as  authentic 
and  true  histories  of  real  events,  renders  it  impossible  for 
him  who  denies  to  be  a  Christian;  just  as  the  man  who  should 
deny  the  history  of  Mohammed  and  the  truth  of  the  Koran 
could  not  be  a  Mohammedan.  The  belief  of  all  the  essential 
truths    and   doctrines  of  the    Bible    is,    therefore,  necessary 


REV.   JOSEPH    GORDON.  Ill 

among  other  things  to  constitute  men  Christians.  In  this 
oneness  of  belief  is  found  another  element  of  the  true  unity 
of  the  Church.  The  power  of  a  belief  in  Ihe  same  truths  to 
unite  men  together  is  every  where  seen,  especially  when  those 
truths  are  of  great  practical  interest  and  importance,  which  is 
eminently  the  case  with  the  truths  of  the  Christian  religion. 
This  is  one  important  link  in  the  chain  that  binds  together 
the  various  religious  sects  in  the  world.  Hindoos,  Moham- 
medans, Catholics  and  the  various  sects  of  Protestants,  unite 
together  in  consequence  of  holding  the  same  belief  on  the 
essential  points  of  their  religion.  The  same  is  true  in  polit- 
ical and  other  voluntary  associations.  The  bond  of  union  is 
a  common  belief  in  certain  truths.  Hence  a  lively  faith  iu 
the  essential  truths  of  the  Christian  religion  will  draw 
believers  into  intimate  union  and  fellowship,  and  make  them 
one  in  Christ. 

3.  A  third  essential  element  in  the  unity  of  the  Church  is 
a  oneness  of  aim  among  all  its  members.  The  great  object 
of  life  is  with  all  true  Christians  essentially  one — the  promo- 
tion of  God's  glory — through  and  by  the  advancement  of 
their  own  and  neighbor's  highest  temporal  and  spiritual  wel- 
fare. Though  the  temporal  callings  in  life  of  Christians  are 
as  various  as  among  the  men  of  the  world,  yet  with  true  be- 
lievers those  callings  are  only  means  to  a  common  end.  In 
the  pursuit  of  this  one  great  object  there  is  no  jealous  rivalry, 
and  no  disappointment.  The  success  of  one  is  tlie  success  of 
all,  as  all  harmoniously  co-operate  together.  Now  this 
unity  of  purpose  and  aim  begets  a  oneness  of  feeling  and 
desire.  By  a  law  of  our  mental  constitution,  it  binds  together 
in  closest  bonds  all  that  truly  love  the  Saviour,  and  thus 
"  they  being  many  are  one  body  in  Christ." 

4.  Again,  the  Church  of  Grod  is  one,  as  subject  to  the  same 
king  and  head,  and  governed  by  the  same  code  of  laws. 
Christ  is  "head  over  all  things  to  the  Church."  He  has 
given  her  a  perfect  code  of  laws  in  the  Bible,  and  by  those 
laws  each  and  all  of  the  true  members  of  the  Church  are 
governed.  They  are  thus  one  community,  one  nation,  one 
kingdom,  one  family.  In  the  kingdom  of  God,  there  is  no 
forced  submission  to  the  government  of  a  king,  and  code  of 
laws  which  the  subjects  hate.  It  is  a  joyful  and  ennobling 
obedience  to  a  government  which  they  love.  Thus  the  king 
and  laws  of  the  Church  are  a  bond  of  union  among  its  mem- 
bers of  the  strongest  kind. 

5.  Once  more :  the  true   members  of  Christ's  Church  are 


112  LIFE   AJfl)    WRITINGS   OF 

essentially  one  in  character.  The  elements  of  Christian 
character  are  in  all  the  same.  It  is  character  hy  which  the 
followers  of  Christ  are  distinguitihed  from  the  rest  of  men. 
They  have  been  "  transformed  by  the  renewing  of  their 
minds;"  "changed  into  the  image  and  likeness  of  God." 
Through  the  principle  that  '•  like  seeks  its  like,"  the  true 
dif-ciplcs  of  Christ  unite  together  in  closest  unity. 

Tims  is  the  true  Church  of  the  Lord  Jesus  one  body,  one 
in  faith,  one  in  aim  and  purpose,  subject  to  one  king  and 
law  ;  one  in  character,  spirit,  feeling,  desire  ;  having  the  same 
hopes  and  fears,  joys  and  sorrows,  and  the  same  eternal  home 
in  prospect. 

From  these  principles  important  conclusions  follow.  Out- 
ward, visible  unity  to  be  lasting  and  profitable,  must  be 
founded  on  this  inward  unity  of  faith  and  character.  Hence 
the  way  to  promote  it  is  not  through  Evangelical  Alliances, 
to  patch  up  an  outward  union  of  incongruous  elements:  but 
by  proclaiming  in  all  its  fullness  the  word  and  law  of  God ; 
submitting  ourselves  to  its  power;  and  laboring  to  bring  all 
others  to  the  love  and  obedience  of  Christ. 

Another  conclusion  is  that  the  unity  of  the  Church  is  vio- 
lated, not  by  proclaiming  the  whole  counsel  of  God.  and  exer- 
cising discipline  on  uJl  offenders,  but  by  the  contrary.  By 
suppressing  the  truth,  admitting  known  transgressors  to  the 
Church,  under  the  plea  of  reforming  them  there,  refusing  to 
exercise  discipline  on  open,  acknowledged  sinners,  and  thus 
throwing  the  doors  of  the  church  open  to  those  influences 
which  will  not  only  mar  its  unity  but  destroy  its  very  exist- 
once.  Christ,  as  King  in  Zion,  merits  and  claims  implicit 
obedience  to  the  laws  of  his  Church.  The  known  and  willful 
transgressor  of  those  laws,  therefore,  unfits  himself  for  mem- 
bership in  that  Church.  To  retain  him  in  her  communion  is, 
therefore,  in  direct  contravention  of  the  law  and  will  of 
Christ;  and,  therefore,  destructive  of  all  true  unity. 

When  the  Church  of  Christ  shall  (as  she  will)  become  really 
one;  when  one  in  faith  and  purpose,  in  obedience  and  char- 
acter ;  she  devotes  herself  in  her  combined  energy  to  the  glo- 
rious and  benevolent  work  entrusted  to  her  by  her  head,  the 
triumph  of  his  truth  on  earth — the  downfall  of  all  oppression 
and  crime,  and  violence  and  every  form  of  evil,  will  speedily 
follow.  Her  true  union,  will  give  her  a  strength  which  earth 
and  hell  will  in  vain  oppose. 


REV.    JOSEPH   GORDOS.  113 


Southern  Revivals. 

The  following  item  is  circulating  in  the  papers  : 

The  Editor  of  the  Wesfcni  Chri^dan  Advocate  says — "We 
have  the  following  on  authority  that  admits  of  no  questioning: 
Recently  in   a  town  of  a  certain   slave  State,  a  revival   took 

place  in  the  church  under  the  charge  of  the  Rev.  Mr. . 

During  the  meeting  a  slave-trader  ^)rr;/r.sse(Z  conversion,  and 
joined  the  church,  and  a  local  preacher  became  much  encour- 
aged thereat.  Soon  after  the  close  of  the  meeting,  the  slave- 
trader  made  a  purchase  from  the  local  preacher  of  a  slave 
woman,  who  had  a  child  at  her  breast.  The  trader  not  wish- 
ing the  child,  and  the  mother  refusing  to  go  without  it,  strong 
cords  were  obtained.  A  dray  was  sent  for,  she  was  tied  hands 
and  feet,  and  was  carried  by  main  force,  and  strapped  down 
to  the  dray,  and  was  thus  driven  off." 

Our  exchanges,  from  time  to  time,  contain  accounts  of  "  re- 
vivals of  religion  "  in  Southern  slaveholding  churches.  These 
revivals  are  held  up  as  evidence  that  God  has  not  forsaken 
those  churches,  and  that  therefore  Christians  in  the  North 
should  not  forsake  them.  We  never  publish  these  accounts, 
because  we  have  no  faith  in  the  genuineness  of  these  revivals. 
We  find  no  evidence  at  all  that  those  who  are  the  subjects  of 
them  are  in  the  least  degree  changed  in  their  character  and 
conduct.  They  continue  to  rob  and  oppress  the  poor,  just  as 
before.  As  the  foregoing  item  shows,  they  are  just  as  cruel 
as  ever.  They  can  tear  the  tender  infant  from  the  mother, 
just  as  ruthlessly  as  they  were  wont  to  do  before  they  pro- 
fessed conversion.  Indee-l,  the  evidence  we  have  in  the  case, 
goes  to  show  that  the  subjects  of  these  revivals  are  generally 
made  worse  instead  of  better,  and  it  is  in  accordance  mt)x 
the  philosophy  of  human  nature,  and  with  the  teachings  of 
the  Bible,  that  this  should  be  the  case. 

All  men  have  some  ground  on  which  they  base  a  hope  of 
happiness  in  a  future  existence.  Very  often  the  '-men  of  the 
world,"  as  they  are  called,  place  their  hope  in  their  natural 
humanity  and  justice.  Hence  it  is  their  religion  to  '•  do  justly 
and  love  mercy,"  so  far  as  they  conveniently  can.  But  as  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  is  prciiched  in  many  places,  in  these 
modern  days,  it  is  made  the  minister  of  sin.  A  free  pardon, 
through  the  blood  of  Christ  is  proclaimed,  and  men  are 
taught  that  if  they  rely  on  Christ  alone  for  justification,  thou 
salvation  is  secure.  The  teaching  of  the  Bible  that  sanctifi- 
cation  is  the  necessary  accompaniment  of  justification,  is  not 


114  LIFE   AND  WRITINGS   OF 

SO  presented  as  to  awaken  and  alarm  the  conscience.  Without 
any  real,  radical  change  of  heart,  the  convert  settles  down  into 
a  false  and  carnal  security,  and  with  a  conscience  at  rest  for 
the  future,  feels  at  liberty  to  indulge  his  wicked  propensities 
to  the  full,  for  the  present.  I.n  the  practice  of  that  guilty 
abuse  of  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith,  which  the  Apos- 
tle Paul  so  pointedly  condemns,  he  "  continues  in  sin  that 
grace  may  abound."  The  parallel  to  these  conversions  is 
found  in  a  passage  from  the  sayings  of  Jesus  Christ:  "Woe 
unto  you  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites  !  for  ye  compass 
sea  and  land  to  make  one  proselyte,  and  when  he  is  made,  ye 
make  him  two-fold  more  the  child  of  hell  than  yourselves^ 

We  believe  in  genuine  revivals  of  religion — revivals  which 
stir  the  conscience  of  the  sinner  to  its  profoundest  depths  ; 
which  bring  him  an  humbled,  heart  broken  penitent  to  the 
foot  of  the  cross,  and  then  send  him  out  to  the  world  a  par- 
doned and  sanctified  soul,  to  lead  a  life  of  holiness  and  true 
benevolence.  But  those  "revivals"  in  which  loud  shouting 
is  received  as  the  evidence  of  conversion,  and  from  which  the 
"  convert  "  goes  out  to  "  tear  the  mother  from  her  babe,  and 
chain  her  to  a  dray,"  are  the  Devil's  own  peculiar  work. 


Kevival  Excitements. 

The  long  article  on  this  subject  which  will  be  found  in  to- 
day's paper,  we  publish  by  request.  We  suppose  it  is  intended 
as  a  reply  to  our  article  headed  "  The  Religion  that  Saves," 
published  two  weeks  ago.  But  as  a  reply  to  that  article,  it 
strikes  wide  of  the  mark,  for  we  have  never  opposed  genuine 
revivals  of  religion,  but  on  the  contrary  have  ever  taught  that 
they  were  the  great  need  of  the  world.  We  think  that  the 
"  Old  Carmelite"  was  a  very  stupid  old  fogy.  But  we  think 
also  that  the  scenes  sometimes  witnessed  in  what  are  called 
modern  revivals,  bear  a  much  closer  resemblance  to  the  frantic 
ravings  of  the  priests  of  Baal  on  Mt.  Carmel,  than  they  do  to 
the  calm  but  intensely  earnest  prayer  of  Elijah.  From  the 
immense  force  of  lungs  that  is  often  expended  in  the  prayers 
heard  at  these  reviv^als,  we  have  sometimes  thought  that  the 
suppliants  must  believe  that  the  God  to  whom  they  were  ad- 
dressed, was  "  either  talking,  or  pursuing,  or  on  a  journey,  or 
peradventure  asleep  and  must  bo  awaked."  There  is  very 
often  a  fallacy  in  illustrations  of  spiritual  things  drawn  from 


REV.   JOSEPH   GOEDON.  115 

material  objects.  Thus,  in  the  article  in  question,  the  com- 
parison of  the  influences  of  revivals  to  rain,  would  prove  that 
all  revivals  are  genuine,  because  rain  is  always  rain,  whether 
it  flows  in  gentle  showers  or  in  overflowing  torrents.  But  the 
most  enthusiastic  advocate  of  religious  excitements  will  hardly 
contend  that  evenj  such  excitement  is  a  genuine  revival.  All 
sorts  of  religion  may  be  revived,  andr  every  kind  of  church 
has  its  revivals.  Again,  the  smoke  and  fire  anecdote,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  article,  is  utterly  absurd  and  fallacious.  If 
a  man  must  take  part  in  every  scene  that  he  witnesses  in  order 
to  judge  correctly  of  its  effects,  we  should  find  ourselves  in  a 
bad  condition  truly.  A  company  of  revelers,  for  instance, 
are  indulging  in  scenes  of  drunken  mirth.  A  looker-on  re- 
proves them  for  their  sin  and  folly.  Oh,  you  have  got  smoke 
in  your  eyes,  say  they,  and  can't  see  clearly;  come  down  and 
partake  with  us  of  spiritual  refreshment,  and  you  will  be  able 
to  see  clearly.  Must  men  become  slaveholders,  or  gamblers,  or 
Mormon  polygamists,  or  pagan  idolaters,  or  Roman  Catholics, 
before  they  can  judge  correctly  of  these  various  practices  and 
systems?  We  do  not  wish  to  compare  modern  revival  excite- 
ments to  any  of  these  things,  but  the  anecdote  proves  as  much 
in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other;  and  proves  just  nothing  in 
either.  Then  we  would  hope  that  modern  revival  prayers  are 
not  always  mere  "  smoke,'^  for  every  one  knows  that  the  greater 
the  smoke  the  less  the  fire. 

But  passing  by  these  things,  we  come  to  other  matters. 
We  have  already  remarked  that  any  kind  of  religion  may  be 
revived,  and  that  all  sorts  of  churches  have  revivals.  The 
Roman  Catholic  Church  often  has  extensive  revivals.  We 
were  in  Wisconsin  a  few  years  ago,  when  a  legate  of  the  Pope, 
just  from  Rome,  was  visiting  the  churches.  Revivals  every 
where  attended  his  labors.  In  a  single  town,  after  a  protracted 
and  excited  meeting  of  three  weeks,  he  received  about  eight 
hundred  persons  into  his  church.  Mormonism  often  enjoys 
seasons  of  revival,'  during  which  large  numbers  are  taken  into 
that  fold  of  adulterous  "  saints."  No  part  of  our  country 
"enjoys  "  so  many  revival  seasons  as  the  South,  and  yet  the 
"converts"  do  not  keep  "the  fast  which  Grod  has  chosen." 
It  is  only  a  few  weeks  since  we  published  an  account  from  the 
leading  Methodist  paper  of  the  North,  of  a  Southern  revival, 
in  which  a  slaveholder  and  slave-trader  were  both  "converted," 
and  during  which  the  former  sold  to  the  latter  a  mother,  re- 
reserving  to  himself  her  inffint  child.  The  mother  resisting 
their  efforts  to  part  her  from  her  babe,  a  dray  was  procured, 


116  LIFE   AiSID    WRITIisGS   OF 

to  ■which  she  was  chained  by  the  "  converted  "  trader,  after 
being  forcibly  torn  from  her  infant,  and  driven  away,  uttering 
the  most  heart-rending  cries  of  anguish.  Now  in  all  these 
cases,  and  many  others  which  we  might  name,  no  one  believes 
that  these  so-called  revivals  are  the  work  of  God's  spirit. 
Hence,  the  mere  fact  of  a  church  having  a  religious  excite- 
ment, and  bringing  many  to  profess  '•  conversion,"  and  "  in- 
dulge "  a  hope,  proves  nothing  one  way  or  the  other.  It  only 
proves  that  the  religion  professed  and  practiced  in  that  par- 
ticular church  has  been  revived.  That  religion  may  be  Mor- 
monism,  Roman  Catholicism,  the  religion  of  form  and  cant, 
or  it  may  be  genuine  Christianity.  The  character  of  the  reli- 
gion and  of  the  revival  must  be  determined  by  another  stan- 
dard altogether. 

We  are  then  brought  to  another  inquiry.  Is  the  religion 
professed  and  practiced  by  the  majority  of  the  large  popular 
Protestant  churches  in  this  country,  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ?  Let  us  look  into  this  question  a  little.  The  religion 
of  these  churches  fellowships,  and  thereby  sanctions  American 
slavery.  This  assertion  is  so  notoriously  true,  that  we  shall 
not  stop  to  prove  it.  But  American  slavery  is  a  system  at 
deadly  war  in  all  points  with  Christianity.  Never  has  there 
been  a  definition  of  the  system  so  comprehensive  and  so  liter- 
ally true  as  that  of  the  great  founder  of  Methodism,  John 
Wesley,  "American  slavery,  the  sum  of  all  villainies,"  The 
mission  of  Jesus  Christ  was  to  ch-sfrm/  "  all  villainy."  For  this 
was  he  manifested  that  he  might  destroy  the  works  of  the 
Devil."  Is  that  his  religion  which  fellowships  and  sanctions 
the  "sum  of  all  villainies?" 

Again,  the  popular  religion  of  this  country  sanctions  offen- 
sive war.  A  few  years  ago  our  government  made  a  wanton 
and  unprovoked  attack  upon  a  feeble  neighboring  nation. 
This  government  was  the  aggressor  from  beginning  to  end. 
The  assertion  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  on  which 
the  declaration  of  war  was  based,  that  '•  war  existed  by  the  act 
of  Mexico  ;  American  blood  having  been  shed  upon  American 
soil,"  was  a  deliberate  and  willful  falsehood.  But  upon  that 
falsehood  war  was  declared  and  carried  on,  till  the  feeble 
Mexican  Eepublic  lay  helpless  at  our  feet,  and  a  vast  portion 
of  her  territory  was  wrested  from  her  possession.  There  was 
guilt  enough  contracted  by  this  country  in  that  crusade  to 
damn  ten  thousand  worlds.  But  no  sooner  was  it  over,  than 
the  American  people  picked  up  from  the  blood  and  dust  of  its 
battle-fields   one   of  its   successful   captains,   and   amid  wild 


RET.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  117 

huzzas  elevated  him  to  the  highest  office  in  their  gift.  His 
only  qualification  for  the  office  was  his  success  in  that  mur- 
derous and  infamous  war.  It  was  by  that  alone  that  he  be- 
came known  to  the  nation,  and  on  the  strength  of  the  fame 
won  in  the  work  of  human  butchery  was  he  elected  to  the 
highest  office  in  the  government.  And  the  popular  church  of 
the  land  sanctioned  the  deed.  Nineteen-twentieths  of  her 
members,  we  presume,  voted  for  the  successful  commander, 
and  joined  with  others  in  the  wild  acclamations  amid  which 
he  was  borne  to  the  presidential  chair.  Four  years  later  and 
both  the  leading  candidates  for  this  office  were  selected  from 
those  whose  hands  were  dripping  with  the  blood  of  this  mur- 
derous crusade,  and  again  voted  for  by  the  mass  of  those 
professing  to  be  the  followers  of  the  Prince  of  Peace.  Is  that 
Christianity  which  thus  does  homage  to  the  spirit  of  aggres- 
sive war,  by  honoring  its  successful  captains? 

Once  more  :  Some  thirty  years  ago  freedom  and  slavery  had 
a  pitched  battle  in  our  national  Congress.  It  was  a  time  of 
intense  excitement.  Momentous  consequences  hung  upon 
the  issue.  But  the  forces  of  freedom  were  worsted  in  the  con- 
flict. They  made  a  "  compromise  "  which  was  a  hard  bargain 
for  freedom.  But  it  secured  the  prohibition  of  slavery  North 
of  36  deg.  30  min.  A  third  of  a  century  passed  away. 
Slavery  had  possessed  the  lion's  share  which  she  gained  by 
the  compromise,  without  molestation.  At  the  end  of  that 
period,  with  malice  prepense,  the  bargain  was  deliberately  and 
foully  broken.  With  a  degree  of  fraud,  villainy  and  impu- 
dence that  would  disgrace  a  gang  of  pirates,  a  majority  of  the 
U.  S.  Congress  tore  down  the  barriers,  that  the  overflowing 
scourge  of  slavery  might  sweep  over  vast  portions  of  virgin 
and  free  soil,  in  the  very  heart  of  the  continent.  By  this  act 
the  heathenism,  licentiousness,  cruelty,  and  all  the  matchless 
atrocities  of  slavery,  are  likely  to  be  spread  over  vast  regions 
that,  under  the  magic?  touch  of  free  labor,  would  bloom  as  the 
garden  of  God.  We  can  not  help  believing  that  this  was  the 
Devil's  work,  and  that  those  who  did  it,  and  those  •whoji/sh'Jied 
it  lohen  iIo)ie,  were  the  Devil's  servants.  But  the  churches  of 
our  country  claim  a  large  number  of  these  covenant-breakers 
as  members  "in  good  and  regular  standing."  Some  of  them 
even  desecrate  the  sacred  desk  as  professed  ministers  of  Christ. 
Is  that  Christ's  religion  which  such  men  teach  and  practice? 
Are  those  genuine  reuu-a/s  which  such  men  assist  in  getting  up 
and  carrying  on?  Yet  we  have  heard  of  such  "revivals"  not 
8  thousand  miles  from  the  spot  where  we  write. 


118  LIFE   AND   WEITINGS   OF 

We  have  no  space  to  multiply  the  proofs  of  the  essentially 
antichristian  character  of  the  popular  religion  of  this  coun- 
try. They  could  be  multiplied  a  thousand  fold.  The  religion 
of  Christ  says,  "  Love  your  enemies,  do  good  to  them  that  hate 
you  and  despitefully  use  you."  The  prevalent  religion  of 
the  American  people  says,  kill  your  enemies,  and  do  honor 
to  those  who  can  destroy  them  most  successfully.  Christ 
denounced  in  terms  of  awful  severity  the  rich,  and  powerful, 
and  haughty  sinners  of  his  day ;  but  spake  in  words  of  win- 
ning love  and  gentleness  to  the  poor  and  lowly.  The  popular 
churches  of  this  land  reverse  the  order.  They  fawn  upon  and 
court  the  great  and  the  guilty,  but  trample  and  scowl  upon 
the  poor.  Christ  declared  that  unless  a  man  denied  himself, 
and  took  up  his  cross  and  followed  him,  he  could  not  be  his 
disciple.  But  it  is  no  cross  to  profess  religion  in  any  of  the 
large  denominations  of  this  country,  but  on  the  contrary  it  is 
often  a  stepping-stone  to  wealth  and  respectability.  But  it  is 
a  pretty  severe  cross,  as  we  have  been  learning  for  the  last  ten 
years,  to  expose  the  iniquities  which  find  a  safe  nestling-place 
in  their  bosom.  The  true  Church  of  Christ  is  the  salt  of  the 
earth.  But  while  the  popular  churches  of  this  nation  control, 
or  might  control  public  sentiment,  the  most  abounding  and 
alarming  evils  are  sweeping  almost  unchecked  over  our  land, 
notwithstanding  these  churches  enjoy  their  yearly  "revivals," 
and  are  constantly  adding  to  their  numbers  and  wealth  and 
power.  "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them  ;  "  and  until  we 
see  diflFerent  fruits,  we  must  be  pardoned  our  want  of  faith  in 
the  vast  majority  of  the  so-called  "  revivals  of  religion  "  which 
annually  visit  the  churches. 

Yet  we  repeat  what  we  said  two  weeks  ago.  We  speak  of 
things  only  in  general,  We  rejoice  to  believe  that  God  has 
a  people  in  all  the  ecclesiastical  organizations  of  our  land,  the 
Roman  Catholic  not  excepted.  We  war  upon  no  man  for  his 
creed,  or  his  opinions,  in  regard  to  things  not  essential  to  sal- 
vation. If  his  life  only  gives  evidence  of  the  practical  power 
of  the  love  of  Christ  in  his  soul,  we  hail  him  as  a  brother. 
We  moreover  earnestly  pray,  and  are  trying  in  our  poor  way 
to  labor  for,  the  upbuilding  of  pure  and  undefiled  religion  all 
over  the  world.  But  until  the  professed  churches  of  Christ 
are  prepared  to  bear  a  decided  and  consistent  testimony 
against  all  sin,  and  until  they  become  pure  enough  to  exclude 
known  criminals  like  slaveholders  and  their  abettors,  we  have 
little  hope  of  any  great  good  to  C(  me  from  their  revivals. 

In    conclusion,    we   have   only   space   to   say,   that  those 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  119 

churches  or  individuals  who  feel  that  they  are  free  from  fiar- 
ticipation  in  the  popular  iniquities  we  have  named,  will  not 
be  offended  at  our  remarks.  But  we  do  expect  that  those  who 
feel  that  they  are  not  free  from  a  guilty  participation  in  these 
crimes,  will  be  offended. 


Revivals  of  Eeligion. 

The  fact  that  revivals  of  religion  take  place  in  slaveholding 
churches  of  this  country,  is  held  by  many  to  be  conclusive 
of  God's  favor.  It  is  plead  that  those  churches  must  be 
owned  as  his  on  which  he  pours  out  his  Spirit,  and  in  which 
he  revives  his  work.  If  such  revivals  of  religion  were  genu- 
ine, and  were  really  followed  by  the  fruits  of  righteousness, 
there  would  be  force  in  this  plea.  But  such  is  not  generally 
the  fact.  A  few  months  after  these  excitements,  called  revi- 
vals, the  subjects  of  them  are  usually  as  frivolous  and  as 
worldly  as  ever.  It  is  an  exception  if  in  any  case  a  marked 
change  in  the  life  of  the  convert  is  the  result.  Even  during 
their  progress  the  grossest  crimes  are  sometimes  perpetrated 
by  those  professing  to  be  the  subjects  of  converting  grace.  A 
true  revival  is  a  revival  of  GocVs  icorh.  The  result  is  that 
those  whom  he  converts  live  henceforth  to  do  the  work  of 
God. 

But  we  did  not  commence  this  article  to  pen  an  argument, 
but  to  relate  a  few  facts.  If  revivals  of  religion  prove  the 
church  in  which  they  occur  to  be  genuine  churches  of  Christ, 
then  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  is  such.  In  no  church  do 
more  extensive  revivals  of  religion  occur  than  in  this:  —  and 
these  revivals  are  followed  generally  by  the  most  punctilious 
observance  of  the  outward  ritual  of  the  worship  of  the  church. 
During  our  recent  visit  to  Wisconsin,  extensive  and  powerful 
revivals  of  religion  were  in  progress  in  the  Catholic  church  in 
parts  of  that  State.  A  Legate  had  just  come  on  from  Rome, 
clothed  with  apostolic  powers.  He  exercised  the  function 
of  forgiving  sins ;  and  we  were  told  he  had  pardoned  the  sins 
of  some  persons  for  the  next  three  years.  This  man  held 
daily  and  nightly  meetings  in  the  larger  towns,  and  in  the 
cities  of  Wisconsin,  and  his  labors  were  usually  followed  by 
extensive  revivals  of  the  Catliolic  religion.  In  the  town  of 
Green  Bay,  a  place  of  fifteen  hundred  or  sixteen  hundred 
inhabitants,  I  was  informed  that  be  received  eight  hundred 


120  LIFE   AND   "WRITINGS   OF 

people  into  the  church.  He  preached  there  night  and  day 
for  weeks,  and  the  whole  community  was  moved  by  his  preach- 
ing. Protestant  schools,  in  which  Catholic  children  were 
receiving  education,  were  broken  up.  Backsliders  were  re- 
claimed, the  faithful  were  strengthened,  and  converts  were 
gathered  into  the  fold. 

Now  this  was  really  a  revival  of  religion  ;  but  it  was  a  re- 
vival of  the  current  religion  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 
The  converts  would  not,  of  course,  embrace  higher  principles 
than  those  preached  to  them  by  the  Pope's  Legate  ;  and  his 
principles  permitted  him  to  engage  in  the  infamous  traffic  of 
indulgences,  in  denunciation  of  which,  when  practiced  by 
Tetzel,  the  voice  of  Luther  sounded  the  first  notes  of  the 
Reformation.  But  if  the  argument  from  revivals  be  valid, 
then  the  Catholic  Church  can  plead  it,  and  it  will  prove  her 
a  true  church  of  Christ.  But  the  plea  is  fallacious.  The 
fact  usually  is  that  the  current  religion  of  the  church  in 
which  these  revivals  occur,  is  that  to  which  their  subjects  are 
converted.  In  the  Catholic  Church  they  are  converted  to  the 
Catholic  religion.  In  slav'eholding  churches  the  converts 
embrace  the  prevalent  type  of  religion  which  permits  them 
to  trade  in  slaves  and  souls  of  men,  and  covers  the  atrocities 
of  slavery  with  its  mantle  of  protection.  In  churches  which 
permit  their  members  to  sell  and  drink  intoxicating  poisons 
revivals  are  frequent,  but  their  spirituality  is  not  of  the  Holy 
Ghost's  imparting.  Thus  it  will  be  found  that  revivals  of 
religion  take  their  character  from  that  of  the  church  in  which 
and  the  teachings  under  which  they  occur.  To  plead,  there- 
fore, that  such  revivals  prove  these  churches  to  be  truly  of 
Christ  is  simply  absurd. 

But  the  question  may  here  be  asked,  whence  comes  the  in- 
terest in  religion  which  attends  and  marks  these  revivals,  if 
not  from  the  spirit  of  God  ?  With  the  same  propriety  we 
may  ask  whence  the  interest  which  attends  Roman  Catholic 
revivals?  If  the  one  is  of  God,  simj)ly  because  excitement  ex- 
ists, so  is  the  other.  But  do  men  need  to  be  taught  that 
religious  excitement  is  no  evidence  of  genuine  piety?  True 
religion  leads  men  to  do  justly,  love  mercy,  and  walk  humbly 
with  God.  It  is  not  every  one  that  says  Lord,  Lord,  that 
shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  Heaven,  but  he  that  doeth 
the  will  of  the  Father  which  is  in  heaven.  Excitements, 
hopes,  fears,  joys  and  sorrows,  mental  exercises  and  im- 
aginary experiences  are  no  evidence  of  true  piety.  John 
Newton  had  "  sw^et  experiences  "  while  pursuing  the  slave- 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  121 

trade  on  the  coast  of  Africa.  If  iilive  now,  and  similarly 
engaged,  these  sweet  experiences  would  not  save  his  neck 
from  the  halter.  Excitements  on  religion  may  be  from  be- 
neath as  well  as  from  above;  hopes  may  be  false,  joys  may 
be  unfounded,  fears  may  be  slavish,  sorrows  may  be  of  the 
world  and  work  death,  exercises  and  experiences  of  mind 
may  be  very  fallacious.  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them. 
If,  therefore,  the  fruits  of  revivals,  in  the  lives  of  their  con- 
verts, are  not  justice,  mercy,  faith,  truth,  honesty,  love, 
peace,  and  all  the  graces  and  fruits  of  God's  Holy  Spirit,  the 
revival  is  not  of  God,  and  does  not  prove  the  church  in  which 
it  occurs  to  be  his. 


Decay  op  Public  Viiitue — Its  Cause  and  Cure. 

That  public  morality  is  declining,  year  by  year,  in  this 
country,  is  a  fact  of  which  even  politicians  are  becoming  sen- 
sible. High-toned  honor  and  strict  personal  integrity  are 
hardly  looked  for  now  among  public  men.  (Charges  of  whole- 
sale bribery  against  Congressmen  and  Judges  excite  no  sur- 
prise. Peculation  of  the  public  treasury  has  almost  ceased 
to  be  disgraceful.  There  is  no  conceivable  villainy  that  is 
not  freely  practiced  and  fully  justified,  if  the  success  of  a 
political  party  is  supposed  to  require  it.  Attempted  assassi- 
nation, of  the  most  beastly  and  cowardly  sort,  in  the  halls  of 
Congress,  only  prepares  the  assassin  for  a  splendid  ovation  of 
public  honor  at  his  death.  Profanity  is  looked  for  in  office- 
seekers,  and,  in  fact,  a  man  can  hardly  succeed  in  the  rough- 
and-tumble  of  politics  without  it.  Some  of  the  law-makers 
of  the  country  are  noted  for  the  ingenuity  and  intensity  of 
their  blasphemy.  To  be  able  to  coin  a  new  word  of  insult  of 
Almighty  God  is  a  passport  to  the  society  of  a  class  of  public 
men.  That  chivalrous  sense  of  personal  honor  which  would 
scorn  to  strike  a  man  from  behind,  or  to  take  any  unfair 
advantage  even  of  an  enemy,  is  altogether  out  of  fashion. 
That  nice  and  scrupulous  integrity  of  character  which  shrinks 
from  the  oifer  of  a  bribe,  as  from  the  touch  of  a  leper,  is 
obsolete.  That  reverential  fear  of  God,  which  characterized 
those  who  planted  the  seeds  of  our  free  institutions  in  New 
England,  and  elsewhere,  is  a  forgotten  legend. 

From   those   high   in   place  the   corruption   spreads   down 
through  all   ranks   of  society,   as  is   to    be  expected.     Pro- 

11 


122  LIFE    AND    WRITINGS    OF 

fanity,  licentiousnes?,  fraud,  swindling;,  embezzlement  are 
lamentably  common.  Human  life  has  become  wondrously 
cheap.  The  cowardly  practice  of  carrying  concealed  weapons 
is  becoming  general.  Assassinations  and  murders  now  excite 
less  commotion  in  a  neighborhood  than  an  assault  and  battery 
did  a  fev.'  years  ago. 

It  is  a  hopeful  sign  that  thoughtful  and  upright  men  are 
beginning  to  inquire  for  the  cause  and  the  cure  of  this 
alarming  condition  of  things.  The  main  cause,  however, 
appears  to  have  escaped  the  notice  of  those  whose  opinions 
on  the  point  we  have  seen.  That  cau^e  is  undoubtedly  the 
low  state  of  religion  in  the  churches.  The  connection 
between  piety  in  the  Church  and  morality  in  the  world  is  as 
intimate  as  between  the  heart  and  the  pulse.  This  connec- 
tion may  be  stated  and  solved  with  mathematical  accuracy. 
The  problem  would  stand  thus :  Given  the  state  of  piety  in 
the  church  of  a  country  to  find  the  state  of  public  morals 
therein.  This  intimate  relation  is  alluded  to  in  the  words  of 
Jesus  to  his  disciples,  "  Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth."  "  Ye 
are  the  liglit  of  the  world."  The  Christian  influence  emanat- 
ing from  the  Church  is  the  salt  that  preserves-society  from 
corruption.  But  that  influence  is  preservative  only  so  far  as 
it  is  Christian.  "  If  the  salt  have  lost  its  savor,  it  is  thence- 
forth good  for  nothing  but  to  be  cast  out  and  trodden  under 
foot  of  men."  If  the  influences  that  emanate  from  a  church 
are  unchristian,  instead  of  staying,  they  hasten  the  process 
of  decay.  To  the  extent  to  which  the  influence  of  the  Church 
is  mighty  for  good,  when  she  is  true  to  her  mission,  to  the 
same  extent  is  it  powerful  for  evil  when  she  proves  false  to 
her  trust.  "  If  the  light  that  is  in  her  be  darkness,  how  great 
is  that  darkness  ?  " 

However  the  wicked  may  affect  to  despise,  and  may  really 
hate  a  holy  church,  the}'  are  yet  powerfully  restrained  by  its 
influence.  There  is  a  power  in  goodness  before  which  vice 
shrinks  abashed  and  confounded.  The  pure  and  burning 
light  of  the  holy  religion  of  Jesus,  reveals  and  shames  the 
dark  schemes  of  the  ungodly.  A  single  man,  "  strong  in 
the  Lord  and  in  the  power  of  his  might,"  is  often  more 
dreaded  by  the  ungodly  than  an  army  with  banners.  John 
Knox  was  more  feared  by  the  Queen  of  Scots  than  all  the 
military  force  the  Protestants  of  Scotland  could  muster. 
Calvin  did  more  to  restrain  and  confound  the  schemes  of 
Popery  in  France  than  all  the  Huguenot  armies  of  Conde 
and    Coligny.      Before    the    meek    eye    of    Jesus   the    most 


REV.  JOSEPH  GORDON.  123 

hardened  sinner  quailed  in  conscience-stricken  terror.  Hence 
it  is  that  a  church,  in  any  community,  which  is  deeply  influ- 
enced with  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  and  exemplifies  his  doctrines 
in  all  its  conduct,  is  the  most  truly  restraining  and  conserva- 
tive power  that  can  exist  in  its  midst. 

In  the  light  of  these  truths  the  cause  of  the  present 
deplorable  state  of  public  morals  in  our  land  is  manifest. 
The  Church  has  ceased  to  be  the  light  of  the  world  and  the 
salt  of  the  earth.  Instead  of  being  the  terror  of  evil-doers, 
she  has  become  their  safest  hiding-place.  The  robber  and 
oppressor  are  among  her  most  honored  members  and  minis- 
ters. The  wine-bibber  and  the  distiller  are  welcomed  to  her 
fellowship.  The  most  flagrant  political  crimes  may  be  per- 
petrated by  her  members  without  rebuke  or  question,  for  the 
current  doctrine  is  that  the  Church  has  nothing  to  do  with 
politics.  The  wealthy  church-member  may  lease  his  build- 
ings for  rum  holes  or  brothels,  and  the  blood-money  which 
he  draws  from  these  sources  is  freely  received  into  what  is 
called  the  treasury  of  the  Lord,  and  his  name  stands  high  on 
the  subscription  list,  and  he  is  lauded  for  his  Christian  (.') 
benevolence.  Ministers  (?)  of  the  gospel  may  sell  virgins 
into  forced  prostitution  without  compromising  their  ministe- 
rial standing  in  the  least.  These  statements  are  true  of  all 
the  large  and  widely  influential  denominations  of  this  country. 

With  this  state  of  things  in  the  Church,  the  wonder  is  that 
it  is  no  worse  in  the  world.  It  tvoidd  be  worse  if  all  the 
churches,  without  exception,  were  involved  in  this  fellowship 
with  crime.  "  But  there  is  a  remnant,  according  to  the 
election  of  grace,"  who  have  not  "  bowed  the  knee  to  Baal." 
There  are  those  also,  in  the  large  and  corrupt  ecclesiastical 
organizations,  who  sigh  and  cry  for  the  abominations  that  are 
done  within  their  pale.  It  is  owing  to  the  influence  of  these 
classes,  who  embody  and  exemplify  all  of  practical  Chris- 
tianity that  is  left  in  the  land,  that  any  vestiges  of  public 
virtue  are  left,  and  that  the  nation  is  not  left  without  right- 
eous men  enough  to  save  it  from  a  political,  social,  and  com- 
mercial conflagration. 

With  this  knowledge  of  the  cause  of  the  low  state  of  pub- 
lic virtue,  there  can  be  no  mistake  as  to  the  remedy.  "  Judg- 
ment must  begin  at  the  house  of  God."  The  sanctuary  must 
be  cleansed  before  the  purifying  streams  can  be  poured 
through  the  Augean  stables  of  social,  political,  and  financial 
corruption.  A  general  revival  of  religion  can  alone  raise  the 
standard  of  public  morality.     But  it  must  be  a  revival  of  true 


124  LIFE   AND    WRITINGS    OF 

and  not  shara  religion — of  that  relip;ion  which  consists  in 
"  doing  justly,  loving  mercy,  and  walking  humbly  with  God  ;" 
which  consists  in  "visiting  the  widow  and  fatherless  in  their 
affliction,  and  keeping  uaspotted  from  the  world." 


Creeds, 

There  is  no  subject,  scarcely,  upon  which  there  has  been 
such  an  infinite  amount  of  twaddle,  as  that  which  we  have 
placed  as  the  caption  of  this  article.  One  would  be  almost 
tempted  sometimes  to  think  that  all  "  the  ills  that  flesh  is  heir 
to"  are  the  result  of  creeds,  and  that  their  universal  abolition 
would  be  the  consummation  of  the  millenium  ! 

Now  what  is  a  creed?  It  is  simply  a  system  of  religious 
faith,  it  matters  not  whether  written  or  unwritten.  The  man 
who  has  no  creed  has  no  faith — no  system  of  religious  truth, 
and  is  simply  a  pagan  or  an  infidel.  There  is  no  intelligent 
Christian  who  has  not  a  c^red. 

But,  says  the  objector,  my  o})jection  lies  only  against  writ- 
ten creeds.  Do  you,  then,  object  to  the  Bible?  for  that  is  the 
written  creed  of  universal  Christendom.  Oh  !  no,  says  the 
objector,  I  only  war  upon  creeds  of  human  composition,  the 
Bible  is  my  creed.  Nay,  my  brother,  your  creed  is  i/our 
■understanding  of  the  Bible.  Suppose,  for  example,  that  you 
should  write  out  your  opinion  (or  belief,  if  you  please,)  of 
what  constitutes  Bible  regeneration,  repentance,  faith,  justifi- 
cation, sanctification,  etc.;  or  of  what  the  Bible  teaches  con- 
cerning the  character  of  God,  his  nature  and  attributes;  or 
of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  or  the  judgment,  or  future 
rewards  and  punishments.  You  certainly  have  some  fixed 
opinions  or  belief  concerning  these  and  all  other  Bible  teach- 
ings, and  this  belief  written  out  would  be  your  written  creed. 
But  is  it  any  the  less  a  creed  because  not  written?  Are  you 
not  just  as  tenacious  of  your  umoritten  creed  as  the  veriest 
creed-monger?  and  do  you  not  as  certainly  recognize  as  crror- 
ists  all  who  do  not  subscribe  to  your  umoritten  c7-eed,  which  is 
simply  your  uiiderstcuidiiig  of  what  the  Bible  teaches? 

Now,  although  Christianity  is  not  merely  a  science,  yet  it  is 
as  certainly  a  science  as  astronomy  or  political  economy.  If 
a  science,  it  has  certain  fixed  and  definite  principles,  and 
these  principles,  so  far  as  understood,  constitute,  whether 
written  or  unwritten,  tho  creed  of  him  who  embraces  it. 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  125 

You,  my  brother,  who  have  an  unwritten  creed,  pronounce 
those  who  have  a  lorittcn  creed  all  wrong.  But  suppose  you 
should  write  out  your  creed,  would  there  not  be  quite  a  prob- 
ability that  the  world  would  find  as  much  wrong  in  yours  as 
any  other  ?  And  do  you  not  subject  yourself  to  the  suspicion 
that  it  ia  to  avoid  this  very  judgment  that  you  do  not  commit 
your  creed  to  writing? 

But  creeds  ai-e  an  abridgment  of  Christian  liberty.  So  far, 
then,  they  are  wrong.  Admitting,  for  the  sake  of  argument, 
that  this  is  true  of  all  existing  creeds,  and  still  it  is  far  from 
being  proved  that  this  is  an  inherent  or  essential  defect  in 
creeds.  It  would  only  prove  that  those  who  drew  them  up 
had  inadequate  conceptions  of  what  constituted  true  Chris- 
tian liberty. 

Suppose  you  should  torife  out  your  ideal  of  Christian  lib- 
erty, is  there  not  a  strong  probability  that  it  would  be  found 
quite  as  objectionable  as  any  other?  Here  again  you  escape 
the  judgment  of  the  world  by  retreating  into  the  dark  laby- 
rinths of  an  unwritten  creed.  But  certainly  your  brother, 
with  his  written  and  published  creed,  has  this  advantage,  that 
by  the  very  publication  of  his  creed,  he  has  given  evidence 
that  he  is  not  ashamed  of  it,  nor  afraid  to  have  it  submitted 
to  the  test  of  strictest  investigation. 

We  might  pursue  this  course  of  argument  much  further, 
but  we  think  it  is  a  matter  comparatively  unimportant.  We 
are  no  creed-worshiper,  and  no  advocate  for  creed  supremacy. 
In  their  proper  place  and  their  legitimate  use,  we  believe  they 
answer  a  good  purpose.  If  any  have  been  found  to  give  them 
an  improper  place,  or  pervert  them  to  the  destruction  of  true 
Christian  liberty,  or  have  exalted  their  authority  above  the 
Word  of  Grod,  it  is  no  more  the  fault  of  the  creed  (though 
no  creed,  we  presume,  is  faultless)  than  the  monstrous 
assumptions  and  aggressions  of  the  slave  power  are  the  fault 
of  the  Constitution  or  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
That  much  evil  has  resulted  from  creeds — that  creeds  mon- 
strous in  wickedness  have  been  promulgated — and  that  others, 
as  a  whole  correct  in  theory,  have  been  monstrously  perverted 
in  their  application,  is  all  doubtless  true,  but  it  would  be  a 
strange  freak  of  logic  to  infer,  therefore,  that  all  creeds  are 
necessarily  and  essentially  wrong.  Up  to  the  present  day 
every  civil  government  ever  organized  has  been  organized 
upon  principles  subversive  of  human  right,  ignoring  the  doc- 
trine of  God's  universal  fatherhood  and  man's  universal 
brotherhood.     Must  we,  therefore,  necessarily  infer  that  all 


126  LIFE  AND    WRITINGS   0¥ 

civil  government  is  of  the  Devil,  or  that  man  is  incapable, 
with  the  light  and  teachings  of  God's  Revelation  to  aid  him, 
of  drawing  up  a  form  of  government  which,  properly  admin- 
istered, shall  secure  the  great  ends  for  which  government  was 
instituted  ? 

But  while  we  thus  speak,  we  enter  our  unqualified  protest 
against  all  creed-worship  and  creed-supremacy.  They  are 
matters  of  mere  convenience.  They  have  no  authority  in 
themselves,  nor  can  they  derive  any  merely  from  the  will  of 
the  body  enacting  them.  Their  sole  authority  is  derived  from 
the  Word  of  God.  All  creeds  must,  like  the  stars  in  the 
firmament,  shine  with  a  borrowed  light.  Let  them,  then, 
occupy  their  humble,  subordinate,  but  not  useless  sphere, 
receiving  and  reflecting  the  light  of  God's  holy  truth,  and 
the  world  may  be  blest  by  their  beneficent  influence.  We 
believe  the  doctrine  of  our  Confession  of  Faith  is  the  true 
position  upon  this  question  : 

"  The  Supreme  Judge,  by  whom  all  controversies  of  religion 
are  to  be  determined,  and  all  decrees  of  councils,  opinions  of 
ancient  writers,  doctrines  of  men,  and  private  spirits,  are  to 
be  examined,  and  in  whose  sentence  we  are  to  rest,  can  be  no 
other  but  the  Holy  Spirit  speaking  in  the  Scriptures." — Con. 
F.,  chap.  1,  sec.  10. 

Again :  "  An  offense  is  anything  in  the  principles  or  prac- 
tice of  a  church-member,  ivhich  is  contrary  to  the  Word  of 
God:' 

"  Nothing,  therefore,  ought  to  be  considered  by  any  judi- 
catory as  an  offense,  or  admitted  as  matter  of  accusation, 
which  can  not  be  proved  to  be  such  from  Scripture,  or  from  the 
regulations  and  practice  of  the  Chnrch,  founded  on  Scripture," 
etc. — Book  of  Discipline,  chap.  1,  sec.  3,  4. 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  127 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  MORAL  ARTICLES. 


Christianity  and  Science. 

The  pertinacious  efforts  and  oft-vaunted  success  of  infidels 
in  trying  to  extort  from  the  revelation  of  nature  a  contradic- 
tion of  the  truths  of  the  Bible,  have  caused  many  serious 
Christians  to  fear  and  distrust  scientific  investigations  into 
the  teachings  of  nature.  They  hence  look  coldly  on  all  at-, 
tempts  to  fathom  her  secrets,  regard  the  man  as  little  better 
than  an  infidel  who  avows  his  faith  in  any  alleged  new  discov- 
ery, and  regard  as  deceptive  any  new  light  that  may  be 
thrown  on  the  laws  and  properties  of  matter  or  mind.  This 
feeling  may  find  some  apology  in  the  thousand  pretended  dis^ 
coveries  of  superficial  observers,  which  for  a  time  have  occu- 
pied the  attention  of  men,  and  have  then  been  exploded  and 
succeeded  by  some  new  wonder  equally  foolish  and  false. 
But  this  attitude  of  hostility  to  the  researches  of  science,  and 
this  tremulous  apprehension  lest  some  evidence  should  be 
extracted  from  the  volume  of  nature  to  throw  discredit  on 
the  records  of  revelation,  is  unworthy  of  intelligent  Chris- 
tians, and  dishonorable  to  their  holy  religion. 

All  Christians  believe  that  the  Creator  of  the  universe  is 
the  author  of  the  Bible.  They  believe  that  the  revelations 
of  nature  and  of  the  Scriptures  have  both  emanated  from  the 
same  infinitely  wise  and  perfect  mind,  a  mind  that  is  alike 
incapable  of  mistake  or  contradiction.  It  follows  that  these 
revelations  must  harmonise  with  and  mutually  confirm  each 
other.  The  object  of  both  revelations  is  the  same,  the  exhibi- 
tion of  the  glory  of  God  through  the  holiness  and  happiness' 
of  men  ;  the  one  is  in  part  a  history  of  the  other.  Both  are 
intended  for  the  instruction  of  the  same  intelligent  beings, 
and  relate  in  many  things  to  the  same  subject.  It  follows  as 
an  inevitable  conclusion  from  all  this,  that  these  revelations 
must  mutually  illustrate  and  establish  each  other,  and  that  it 
must  be  the  very  madness  of  atheism  that  leads  any  person 
to  try  to  extort  from  the  perverted  pages  of  the  one,  a  con- 
tradiction of  the  other. 


128  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS    OF 

As  was  to  be  expected,  therefore,  wc  find  all  the  past  efi"orts 
of  infidels  in  these  attempts,  have  signally  failed.  Again  and 
again,  indeed,  has  the  world  rung  with  their  boastings  over 
some  alleged  discovery  of  science  that  had  completely 
exploded  the  credibility  of  the  Christian  Scriptures.  But  no 
sooner  have  these  pretended  discoveries  been  investigated 
than  it  has  been  found  that  they  have  been  false  in  themselves, 
or  that  their  alleged  opposition  to  the  Bible  has  been  founded 
on  an  entire  misrepresentation  of  the  teachings  of  the  holy 
volume.  The  weapons  with  which  the  unbelievers  have 
sought  to  destroy  the  citadel  of  revealed  truth,  and  the 
foundation  of  the  Christian's  hope,  have  been  turned  with 
terrible  efi"oct  on  the  cobweb  theories  of  the  infidel. 

Of  the  truth  of  these  remarks  the  present  position  of  geo- 
logical science  furnishes  a  pertinent  illustration.  In  nothing 
more  than  the  alleged  revelations  of  geology  has  infidelity 
sought  for  evidence  to  destroy  the  claims  of  the  Bible  to  be 
the  word  of  God.  For  a  time  the  Christian  world  looked  on 
with  alarm,  and  investigation  into  the  phenomena  of  the 
geological  formations  was  discouraged  and  distrusted.  This 
was  just  what  the  infidels  wanted.  Loudly  did  they  scofi"  at 
the  fears  of  Christians,  and  boastingly  did  they  proclaim  that 
they  were  afraid  to  examine  into  the  structure  of  the  earth,  as 
the  evidence  furnished  would  inevitably  overthrow  their  faith 
in  the  Bible.  But  the  field  was  at  last  entered  by  the  believ- 
ers in  revelation,  and  at  every  step  of  their  investigations 
have  they  found  the  most  abundant  confirmation  of  the  truth, 
of  the  inspired  records.  The  contradiction  to  its  teachings 
which  the  infidels  pretended  to  have  discovered,  were  found 
to  rest  upon  the  most  superficial  observation  of  the  phenomena 
of  nature,  and  upon  the  most  false  and  distorted  views  of  the 
facts. 

A  single  instance  is  all  we  now  have  room  to  furnish  in 
illustration  of  those  remarks.  A  work  was  published  a  few 
years  since,  called  the  "Vestiges  of  Creation."  One  object 
of  the  work  was  to  establish  what  is  called  the  "  development  " 
theory  of  animal  existence.  This  theory  is,  that  all  animal 
life,  from  the  lowest  form  up  to  that  of  man.  is  a  result  of  the 
operation  of  the  laws  of  nature — that  currents  of  electricity 
passing  through  small  masses  of  matter  in  a  certain  state  gener- 
ated monads,  or  the  lowest  forms  of  animal  life  ;  that  from  these 
the  developments  and  improvements  went  on  to  reptiles,  fishes, 
birds,  four-footed  animals,  monkeys  and  men.  The  "great 
fact  "  that  was  adduced  in  support  of  this  theory  was,  that  the 


REV.  JOSEPH  GORDON.  129 

only  fossil  remains  found  in  the  first  or  lowest  geological 
formations  were  those  of  the  lowest  order  of  animals,  and 
that  the  development  and  perfection  of  these  fossils  kept  pace 
with  the  geological  formations,  thus  proving  that  they  began 
and  proceeded  together.  The  object  of  this  theory  was  to 
disprove  the  Mosaic  account  of  the  creation,  and  thus  throw 
discredit  on  the  Bible.  This  was  considered  for  a  time  a 
triumphantly  established  theory.  But,  alas  for  infidel  con- 
fidence !  subsequent  investigation  has  proved  the  pretended 
"  fact  "  on  which  the  theory  was  based,  to  be  no  fact.  The 
researches  of  Miller  and  others  have  resulted  in  the  discovery 
of  some  of  the  most  perfect  forms  of  vertebrated  animals,  in 
the  lowest  geological  formations.  Thus  the  flimsy  foundation 
of  the  superstructure  of  air  has  been  overturned,  and  the 
faith  of  the  Christian  in  the  truth  and  inspiration  of  his  Bible 
vindicated. 

Many  similar  illustrations  of  the  truth  of  our  remarks  might 
be  furnished.  We  waive  them  for  the  present  to  make  room 
for  the  following  observations  by  an  able  writer,  which  will 
be  found  interesting : 

"  While  revelation  thus  lavishes  its  favors  on  science,  sci- 
ence in  its  turn,  illustrates  and  confirms  revelation.  Seeming 
facts  have,  indeed,  at  times,  been  promulgated,  which  appeared 
to  contradict  and  bring  discredit  on  its  statements ;  but  fur- 
ther research,  on  the  part  of  scientific  men,  exposed  their 
fallacy,  and  confirmed  the  Scriptures.  For  example,  the  accu- 
racy of  the  Mosaic  chronology  has  been  more  than  once 
impugned.  Toward  the  close  of  the  last  century,  the  astro- 
nomical tables  of  the  Indians  formed  the  topic  of  protracted 
discussion.  These  tables  professed  to  record  observations 
conducted  during  millions  of  years.  Attempts  were  made  to 
verify  this  remote  chronology,  and  to  show  that  there  was 
internal  proof  that  the  observations  must  have  been  actually 
made  at  the  time  specified.  This  theory  was  adopted  by  sev- 
eral philosophers  in  this  country  and  on  the  continent ;  it 
was  advocated  by  some  of  the  leading  journals,  and  infidelity 
seemed  to  have  gained  a  victory.  Its  triumph  however  was 
short.  By  Bentley,  Delambre,  La  Place,  and  others,  these 
tables,  to  which  the  Brahmins  had  assigned  so  high  an  anti- 
quity, were  subjected  to  a  more  rigid  and  scientific  scrutiny. 
The  result  was  an  unanswerable  proof  that  they  had  been 
fabricated  only  a  few  centuries  before. 

Again,  when  the  celebrated  zodiac  of  Dendara  was  brought 
from   Egypt  to   Paris,  Bupuis  and  his  disciples  expected  to 

12 


130  LIFE   AND  WRITINGS   OF 

derive  from  it  an  argument  in  support  of  their  skeptical  rev- 
eries on  the  "  origin  of  religions,"  and  of  pretended  civiliza- 
tion, which  they  maintained  had  existed  in  Egypt  long  before 
the  times  of  either  Moses  or  the  deluge.  The  calculations  by 
•which  they  attempted  to  prop  their  fallacious  theories  were 
investigated  by  men  distinguished  in  the  scientific  world,  and 
proved  to  be  erroneous.  Still  the  adversaries  of  revelation 
were  unwilling  to  acknowledge  defeat,  and  persisted  in  ascrib- 
ing to  their  zodiac  an  antiquity  of  more  than  six  thousand 
years.  Quite  recently,  however,  Champollion,  in  his  researches 
among  the  mysterious  paintings  and  hieroglyphics  of  the 
Egyptians,  found,  on  the  very  temple  from  which  it  was 
taken,  two  inscriptions,  one  of  them  in  Greek,  containing  the 
names  of  Ptolemy  and  Cleopatra  and  the  Koman  emperors, 
by  whom  it  had  been  built  about  the  commencement  of  the 
Christian  Era..  Thus  the  truth  of  the  Mosaic  narrative, 
instead  of  being  subverted,  was  confirmed,  and  its  opponents 
covered  with  confusion. 

The  inquiries  of  the  learned  into  Egyptian  documents  and 
monumental  inscriptions,  have  thrown  light  on  sacred  history 
and  furnished  independent  evidence  of  its  accuracy.  The 
sojourn  of  the  Israelites,  their  state  of  slavery,  the  occupations 
at  which  they  were  compelled  to  labor,  as  well  as  the  period 
of  their  abode,  are  all  recorded  in  the  documents  to  which  I 
have  referred. 

Had  Voltaire  been  now  alive,  he  would  not  have  ventured 
to  put  the  sneering  question,  how,  and  on  what  materials  the 
Hebrew  lawgiver  would  write  the  Pentateuch ;  for  it  was 
proved  that  papyrus  was  in  common  use  for  writing  in  his 
time.  Nor  would  he  have  tauntingly  asked  how,  after  an 
interval  of  a  thousand  years,  Hilkiah,  could  find  in  the  tem- 
ple of  Jerusalem,  the  autograph  of  the  law;  for  writings  and 
contracts  on  papyrus,  as  old  as  the  times  of  the  Pharaohs,  still 
exist,  and  are  still  legible.  Nor  would  he  have  incredulously 
inquired,  how  so  many  objects  of  art  for  the  tabernacle,  and 
the  sacred  vestments  and  vessels,  could  be  wrought  in  the 
desert;  for  the  arts  then  flourished  in  Egypt,  and  there  Moses 
had  acquired  a  knowledge  of  them.  Nor  would  he  have  insin- 
uated against  Ezra  the  charge  of  having  forged  the  sacred 
books  which  he  had  collected ;  for  the  written  and  monumen- 
tal history  of  Egypt  so  coincides  with  these  books,  in  dates 
and  facts,  as  to  demonstrate  that  they  could  not  be  the  work 
of  an  impostor.  The  remark  respecting  this  celebrated  infidel, 
made  by  Benjamin  Constant,  an  eminent  philosopher  who  had 


REV.  JOSEPH    GORDON.  131 

abandoned  infidel  opinions  in  consequence  of  the  numberless 
difficulties  which  the  facts  of  science  oppose  to  skepticism,  is 
very  pungent ;  "  He  who  would  be  gay  with  Voltaire,  at  the 
expense  of  Ezekiel  and  Genesis,  must  unite  two  things,  which 
will  make  his  gaiety  sufficiently  melancholy — ignorance  the 
most  profound,  and  frivolity  the  most  deplorable." — Rohson. 


Science  and  Christianity — Another  Coincidence. 

One  man  of  real  science,  Agassiz,  and  several  smatterers, 
Gliddon,  Nott,  etc.,  have  lately  been  trying  to  prove  that  the 
human  race  have  not  all  descended  from  one  original  pair. 
They  pretend  to  find  such  differences  of  physical  conforma- 
tion among  the  different  nations  of  men,  as  preclude  the  idea 
of  their  having  the  same  ancestry.  This  idea  is,  of  course,  at 
variance  with  the  teachings  of  the  Bible.  Its  history  is,  that 
Adam  and  Eve  were  the  progenitors  of  all  the  race.  The 
apostle's  declaration  is,  that  "  G  od  has  made  of  one  blood  all 
nations  of  men  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth."  If  the 
theory  that  there  was  more  than  one  original  pair  could  be 
established,  of  course  the  testimony  of  the  Scriptures  on  this 
point  would  be  discredited. 

But  the  recent  discoveries  of  science  come  in  at  this  point 
to  confirm  and  establish  the  testimony  of  revelation.  By  the 
aid  of  the  microscope  it  has  been  discovered  that  the  blood  of 
every  animal  is  specifically  different  from  that  of  every  other, 
and  that  human  blood  is  entirely  distinct  from  that  of  all 
animals,  while  it  is  the  same  in  all  races  of  men.  A  writer 
in  the  Presbyterian  Banner  and  Advocate  thus  states  the  prop- 
osition of  the  apostle  in  his  speech  at  Athens : 

"  I.  There  is  a  common  life-stream  flowing  through  the 
veins  of  all  men,  of  whatever  tribe  or  nation,  which,  notwith- 
standing its  accidental  modifications  caused  by  influence  of 
climate,  food,  health,  and  habits,  is  yet  everywhere  character- 
istically the  same,  and  can  be  recognized  as  such. 

"II.  This  life-stream  of  the  human  race  is  characteristic- 
ally different  from  all  other  life-streams,  found  in  all  other 
creatures  :  in  other  words,  the  blood  of  beasts,  birds,  or  fishes, 
or  any  other  creeping  thing,  and  can  be  clearly  distinguished 
therefrom." 

These  propositions  he  demonstrates  thus  : 

"  Science  has  actually  established  our  interpretation  of  the 


132  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

Pauline  statement  as  the  true  one  !  The  light  hreaks  at  last 
upon  our  path !  The  achievement  of  scientific  naturalists 
furnish  to  our  hand  the  materials  for  a  true  interpretation, 
and  bring  vividly  to  mind  the  pertinent  and  far-reaching 
remark  of  Bishop  Butler,  that  '  Events  as  they  come  to  pass 
will  open  the  fuller  sense  of  Scripture.'  The  microscope 
accomplishes  to-day  a  splendid  work  in  behalf  of  the  living 
oracles  of  Grod.  It  interprets  to-day  a  part  of  the  oration  of 
Paul.  It  has  superseded  the  tedious  and  circuitous  method 
of  chemical  analysis  relied  upon  for  the  last  twenty  years,  but 
with  so  much  misgiving  and  dissatisfaction.  The  most  that 
could  be  accomplished  by  this  means,  was  simply  the  detec- 
tion of  coloring  matter  in  the  blood,  without  any  evidence, 
whatever,  whether  the  blood  was  that  of  a  man,  a  beast,  or  a 
bird.  But  the  microscope  has  done  more.  It  has  done  for 
the  blood  just  what  the  telescope  has  done  for  the  nebulous 
stream  in  the  heavens.  It  has  resolved  the  mazy  mass  into 
separate  globes,  and  determined  the  variety,  character  and 
size  of  each.  First,  came  the  discovery  that  the  blood  of 
every  animal  is  composed  of  an  infinite  number  of  minute, 
red  globules,  floating  in  a  colorless  fluid.  Next,  that  in  the 
Mammal  class,  these  globules  were  uniformly  circular  and 
somewhat  y?a^;  in  thickness  equal  to  one-fourth  the  diameter. 
Next,  that  in  birds,  fishes,  reptiles,  these  globules  are  oval  in 
form,  and  last  of  all,  that  '  every  kind  of  animal  has  its 
blood  globules  difi"ering  in  size  from  those  of  every  other 
kind.'  " 


Geology. 


So  far  as  our  Brother  Bradford  is  concerned  with  the 
foregoing  communication,  "  he  is  of  age  and  can  answer 
for  himself."  Having  admitted  the  assumption  of  the  geol- 
ogists that  the  earth  is  more  than  six  thousand  years  old, 
he  is  bound  to  reconcile  the  supposed  fact  with  the  Mosaic 
account,  or  reject  the  latter  as  false.  Wc  have  made  no  such 
admission,  though  in  our  former  article  in  reply  to  the  ques- 
tion of  a  "  Sincere  Inquirer,"  we  showed  one  way  in  which 
the  assumptions  of  geologists  in  regard  to  the  age  of  the 
earth  and  the  history  of  creation  as  given  by  Moses,  could  be 
reconciled.  Our  want  of  success  in  "  fully  satisfying  "  our 
correspondent,  does  not  encourage  us  to  repeat  the  attempt  in 


EEV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  133 

that  direction.  Wo  shall  content  ourself.  in  the  present  arti- 
cle, with  defining  our  position  and  giving  a  true  statement  of 
the  point  at  issue  between  the  infidel  geologists  and  the  Bible. 

We  neither  admit  or  deny  the  assumption  of  the  geologists 
that  the  "  earth's  monuments  prove  her  to  be  tens  of  thous- 
ands of  years  old."  It  seems  to  us  quite  too  soon  to  make 
such  assertions  with  overweening  confidence.  Geology  is  too 
young,  and,  hitherto,  too  confined  in  her  researches  to  speak 
as  those  who  know  whereof  they  afiirm  of  the  age  of  the 
world.  Let  her  votaries  content  themselves  with  examining 
phenomena,  collecting  and  classifying  facts,  and  thus  laying 
the  foundations  of  a  true  science.  When  the  entire  field  of 
investigation  open  to  their  research  has  been  thoroughly 
explored,  it  will  be  time  enough  to  call  in  question  the  hith- 
erto received  interpretation  of  the  Mosaic  cosmogony.  That 
they  have  yet  furnished  any  thing  approximating  a  "  demon- 
stration^'' that  the  earth  is  more  than  six  thousand  years  old 
we  deny.  The  alleged  demonstration  is  derived  from  the 
fossil  remains  found  in  the  secondary  formations,  and  the 
following  extract  from  Professor  Silliman  is,  perhaps,  a  fair 
specimen  of  the  mode  of  reasoning  from  these  discoveries  : 

"  We  will  not  inquire  whether  Almighty  Power  inserted 
plants  and  animals  in  mineral  masses,  and  was  thus  exerted 
in  working  a  long  series  of  useless  miracles  without  design 
or  end,  and,  therefore,  incredible.  The  man  who  can  believe, 
for  example,  that  the  Iguanodon,  with  his  gigantic  form, 
seventy  feet  in  length,  ten  in  hight  and  fifteen  in  girth,  was 
created  in  the  midst  of  consolidated  sandstone,  and  placed 
down  one  thousand  or  twelve  hundred  feet  from  the  surface 
of  the  earth,  in  a  rock  composed  of  ruins  and  fragments,  and 
containing  vegetables,  shells,  fish,  and  rolled  pebbles — such  a 
man  can  believe  any  thing  with  or  without  evidence.  If 
there  be  any  such  persons  we  must  leave  them  to  their  own 
reflection's,  since  they  can  not  be  influenced  by  reason  and 
sound  argument ;  with  them  we  can  sustain  no  discussion,  for 
there  is  no  common  ground  on  which  we  can  meet." 

Now  can  the  learned  Professor,  or  any  one  else,  affirm  that 
the  huge  monsters  of  which  he  speaks,  were  not  antediluvian 
animal  productions,  cotemporary  and  corresponding  in  mag- 
nitude with  the  "  mighty  men  which  were,  of  old,  men  of 
renown,"  and  that  they  were  not  buried  in  the  fearful  convul- 
sions attending  that  event,  when  the  fountains  of  the  great 
deep  were  broken  up  ?  Or  can  the  geologists  tell  what  effect 
six  thousand  years,  with  its  earthquakes,  volcanoes,  its  one 


134  LIFE    AND    WRITINGS    OF 

general  deluge  and  thousands  upon  thousands  of  violent 
floods  have  produced  upon  the  earth  ?  Well  may  the  lan- 
guage of  Jehovah,  to  one  of  old,  be  addressed  to  these 
speculators  :  "  Where  wast  tliou  when  I  laid  the  foundation 
of  the  world?   Declare  if  thou  hast  understanding." 

The  state  of  the  question  then  as  between  the  infidel  geol- 
ogists and  the  Bible  is  this.  The  Bible  does  not  rest  on 
geology  for  evidence  of  its  truth,  but  geologists  appeal  to 
their  science  for  evidence  to  prove  the  Scriptures  false.  It 
is  then  evidently  for  the  geologists  to  make  out  a  case  for 
their  science,  as  against  the  Bible,  so  clear  that  the  shadow  of 
a  reasonable  doubt  can  not  rest  upon  it.  Until  this  is  done 
it  is  both  impudent  and  absurd  to  set  up  their  speculations  to 
prove  the  Scriptures  false,  and  then  clamor  against  the  bigotry 
of  those  who  refuse  to  cast  aside  the  only  book  that  holds  out 
any  hope  for  man  in  time  or  in  eternity.  The  Bible  presents 
better  authenticated  historical  records  than  any  other  book. 
There  is  more  and  better  historical  evidence  that  Moses  led 
the  Israelites  from  Egypt  to  Canaan — gave  them  the  law  and 
established  their  system  of  religious  worship,  than  there  is 
that  Cecrops  founded  Athens,  and  that  Grreece  became  the 
seat  of  learning  and  arts.  There  is  more  and  better  histori- 
cal evidence  that  Jesus  Christ  lived,  taught,  wrought  miracles, 
was  crucified  and  rose  from  the  dead  on  the  third  day,  than 
there  is  that  Julius  Caesar  lived,  subdued  Gaul  and  Britain, 
led  his  armies  back  to  Borne,  crossed  the  Rubicon  and 
became  Emperor.  The  evidence  from  prophesy  is  so  remark- 
able that  some  ancient  enemies  of  the  Bible  were  compelled 
to  resort  to  the  silly  plea  that  they  were  written  after  the 
events  they  professed  to  foretell.  The  evidence  from  this 
source  is  cumulative,  and  is  growing  stronger  by  the  lapse  of 
time.  Now,  if  the  accounts  of  the  miracles  of  Moses,  the 
Prophets,  and  of  Jesus,  were  published  and  believed  at  the 
time  in  which  they  are  said  to  have  been  wrought — and  to 
deny  this  is  to  falsify  and  discredit  all  historical  evidence — 
they  must  have  been  true.  If  events  were  foretold  hundreds 
of  years  before  they  transpired  so  clearly  that  they  are  a  true 
history  of  the  events,  then  the  book  which  is  attested  by 
these  miracles,  and  which  contains  these  prophecies,  must  be 
divinely  inspired. 

But  the  Bible  presents  evidence  of  its  own  truth  and  inspi- 
ration, above  the  testimony  of  prophesy  and  miracles.  In  the 
correspondence  of  its  parts,  the  agreement  of  its  writers  one 
with  another — writing  as  they  did  during  a  period  stretching 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  135 

over  fifteen  liundred  years,  in  different  parts  of  tlie  earth — 
being  men  of  different  liabits  and  education  and  mental  endow- 
ments— in  all  this,  and  in  the  i^ractical  effects  of  the  Bible, 
there  is  evidence  that  it  is  of  Grod,  that  amounts  to  the  very 
strongest  moral  demonstration.  Whatever  progress  the  world 
has  made  in  knowledge,  and  virtue  and  happiness,  it  owes 
directly  or  indirectly  to  the  Bible.  The  institutions  under 
which  the  infidels  of  the  present  day  have  been  educated  into 
the  outward  decencies  of  civilization,  and  into  the  knowledge 
and  practice  of  some  moral  virtues,  owe  their  existence  to  the 
Bible.  Serpent-like,  these  men  would  destroy  the  bosom  on 
which  they  have  been  warmed  into  whatever  of  intellectual 
and  moral  life  they  enjoy. 

The  Bible  goes  to  the  rude  hovel  of  the  Hottentot,  bi'eathes 
over  him  its  own  divine  spirit,  awakes  his  debased  and  feeble 
intellect  to  newness  of  life,  and  transforms  his  fierce  and  more 
than  brutal  soul  into  the  divine  likeness  of  Jesus.  The  liou 
becomes  the  lamb.  The  revengeful,  blood-thirsty  savage, 
becomes  the  meek,  non-resisting,  peace-making  Christian. 
The  lustful  become  pure,  the  proud  are  made  humble,  and  the 
selfish  become  benevolent.  Following  in  the  track  of  the 
Bible,  the  arts  and  sciences  of  civilized  life  take  the  place  of 
the  debasing  institutions  of  heathenism.  Thus,  by  its  prac- 
tical eflfects,  the  Bible  vindicates  its  claim  to  be  the  book  of 
God.  The  life  of  one  Christian  Africaner,  before  and  after 
conversion,  is  an  argument  for  its  divine  inspiration  which 
infidelity  in  vain  attempts  to  gainsay. 

Again  :  the  Bible  goes  to  the  bedside  of  the  dying  believer, 
and  transforms  that  scene  of  mortal  agony  into  the  lofty  tri- 
umph of  the  conqueror.  Its  voice  of  hope  and  promise  rises 
high  and  clear  above  the  roar  of  the  billows  of  death.  Its 
light  of  future  glories  throws  a  hallowed  radiance  over  its 
dark  and  bitter  waves.  While  the  infidel  ti'emblingly  and  in 
agony  exclaims,  "  Eemorse  !  remorse  !"  the  Christian  shouts, 
"  0  death,  where  is  thy  sting !  0  grave,  where  is  thy  victory ! 
thanks  be  to  God,  who  giveth  its  the  victory  through  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ."  Thus^  also,  the  Bible  vindicates  its  claims  to 
Divine  inspiration. 

We  might  pursue  this  train  of  argument  to  an  indefinite 
length,  but  we  stop  here.  So  much  evidence  do  the  Scriptures 
afford  that  they  are  of  God,  that  men  like  Locke  and  Newton 
— giants  of  intellect,  before  whose  colossal  proportions  the 
sciolists  of  this  age  that  call  in  question  the  inspiration  of  the 


136  LIFE   AND    AVRITIXGS    OF 

Bible,  dwindle  into  microscopic  dimensions — bowed  in  pro- 
foundest  veneration  to  their  infallible  authority. 

Now  this  is  the  book  which  geology — a  science  of  yesterday, 
having  dug  a  few  holes  one  eight-thousandth  part  of  the 
earth's  diameter  in  depth,  and  extracted  therefrom  a  few  bones 
of  extinct  species  of  animals — would  set  aside  as  a  forgery  and 
a  lie.  The  theories  of  geology,  built  upon  this  most  super- 
ficial and  narrow  examination  of  the  earth's  monuments,  have 
been  legion.  It  has  been  the  fate  of  one  theory  after  another 
to  explode,  after  new  facts  have  been  brought  to  light  by  fur- 
ther examination.  Yet  these  structures  of  gossamer,  rising, 
sparkling,  and  bursting,  like  the  soap-bubbles  which  the 
child  blows  up  for  a  moment's  amusement,  are  to  overturn  the 
adamantine  pillars  of  revelation,  built  on  the  moveless  foun- 
dation of  the  Rock  of  Ages.  And  when  the  infidelity  of  Low- 
ell peddles  out  at  second  hand  these  flimsy  speculations,  to 
discredit  the  truths  of  revelation,  a  "Sincere  Inquirer,"  and 
those  he  represents,  are  ready  to  "  beg  for  quarter  !  " 

We  have  said  nothing  about  the  matter  of  the  obligation  of 
the  Sabbath,  because  that  question  depends  on  the  truth  or 
falsehood  of  the  Bible. 


Wab. 


One  of  the  brightest  revelations  of  Prophesy  is  the  entire 
cessation  of  war.  It  is  thus  announced  by  the  Prophet 
Isaiah : — 

"And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  last  days,  that  the  mountain  of  the 
Lord's  house  shall  be  established  in  the  top  of  the  mountains,  and  shall 
be  exalted  above  the  hills:  and  all  nations  shall  flow  unto  it. 

"And  many  people  shall  go  and  say,  Come  ye,  and  let  us  go  up  to 
the  mountain  of  the  Lord,  to  the  house  of  the  God  of  Jacob;  and  he 
will  teaeh  us  of  his  ways,  and  we  will  walk  in  his  paths:  for  out  of 
Zion  shall  go  forth  the  law,  and  the  word  of  the  Lord  from  Jerusalem. 

"  And  he  shall  judge  among  the  nations,  and  shall  rebuke  many  peo- 
ple: and  they  shall  beat  their  swords  into  plough-shares,  and  their 
spears  into  pruning-hooks:  nation  shall  not  lift  up  sword  against 
nation,  neither  shall  they  learn  war  any  more." 

The  time  thus  foretold  is  called  by  Christians  generally, 
the  jMillenium.  This  is  the  time  of  the  Lord's  reign  on  earth, 
either  personally  and  visibly,  as  some  believe,  or  spiritually 
in  the  hearts  of  men,  according  to  the  faith  of  others.     Before 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  137 

this  period  arrives,  war  must  universally  cease,  and  the  reign 
of  peace  extend  over  the  earth.  This  consummation  is  to  be 
brought  about  by  the  gospel  of  Christ.  When  the  Christian 
religion  shall  become  prevalent  in  the  earth,  and  the  hearts 
and  lives  of  all  are  brought  under  its  power,  "wars  will  cease 
unto  the  ends  of  the  earth." 

War  is,  therefore,  opposed  to  the  spirit  and  principles  of 
the  gospel.  It  is  a  practice  which  is  undesirable,  the  exist- 
ence of  which  all  the  good  deplore,  which  no  one  with  any 
feelings  of  love  to  God  or  men,  desires  to  see  extended  and 
perpetuated.  This  is  enough  for  our  purpose.  It  is  abun- 
dant proof  that  it  is  every  one's  duty  to  labor  for  the  abolition 
of  war  and  the  war-spirit.  It  is  an  all-sufficient  reason  why 
no  Christian  should  seek  a  justification  of  war,  even  in  extreme 
cases,  from  the  gospel  of  Christ.  War  is  one  of  the  Devil's 
favorite  agencies  for  the  ruin  and  misery  of  men.  Satan,  no 
doubt,  never  feels  better  pleased  than  when  he  beholds  two 
armies  engaged  in  slaughtering  each  other.  How  far  Chris- 
tians may  adopt  and  employ  one  of  his  favorite  instrumen- 
talities would  not  seem  difficult  to  determine.  That  this  has 
been  done  extensively,  by  professing  Christians  is  as  much 
out  of  character,  and  as  much  a  matter  of  wonder,  as  the  fact 
that  they  have  engaged  in  the  foreign  and  domestic  slave-trade, 
and  in  holding  men  in  slavery;  or  that  they  are  found  en- 
gaged in  the  making,  vending,  and  drinking  of  intoxicating 
liquors.  Their  conduct  in  these  and  many  other  instances, 
is  a  libel  on  the  religion  they  profess  ;  a  gross  misrepresenta- 
tion of  the  teachings  and  spirit  of  Christ.  Even  though  a 
plausible  argument  for  war  in  an  extreme  case  might  be  made 
out,  it  proves  nothing.  Extreme  cases  are  not  the  rule  of  action, 
hut  the  except io}i,  and  exceptions  only  establish  the  rule.  We 
therefore,  oppose  war  to  the  same  extent  that  we  oppose 
slavery,  drunkenness,  caste,  polygamy,  or  any  other  organic 
sin.  Ranking  it  with  these,  we  would  be  faithless  to  our  con- 
victions of  duty  if  we  did  not  raise  our  feeble  voice  against  it. 

There  are  different  grounds  of  opposition  to  the  practice. 
It  appeals  to  different  motives.     We  oppose  it, 

1st.  On  account  of  its  fearful  and  wasteful  ex-penditures. 
The  wars  of  what  are  called  Christian  nations,  have  cost  more 
than  all  other  purposes  of  government  besides.  Confining 
our  attention  to  our  own  land,  and  we  find  that  the  expense 
of  preparation  for  war  in  time  of  peace,  is  four  times  greater 
than  all  other  expenses  of  the  Government.  A  few  facts  will 
abundantly  establish  this  position;  and  we  shall   use  only 


138  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OP 

those  which  are  familiar  to  all.  The  army  and  navy  of  the 
United  States  cost  the  nation  eighty  per  cent,  of  all  the  public 
revenue.  This  percentage  is  higher  than  in  any  other  nation 
on  the  globe.  In  Austria  it  is  33  per  cent;  in  France  38;  in 
Prussia  44;  in  Great  Britain  74;  and  in  the  United  States 
80  per  cent!  That  is  eighty  cents  out  of  every  dollar  of  the 
public  revenue,  paid  by  the  laboring  classes  of  the  country, 
is  swallowed  up  in  making  and  sustaining  preparations  for 
the  work  of  human  butchery.  The  remaining  twenty  cents 
answers  all  the  civil  purposes  of  the  nation.  Pays  the  salary 
of  all  the  public  officers;  the  outfit  and  salaries  of  foreign  min- 
isters ;  the  light-houses,  from  Maine  to  California  ;  all  public 
buildings  of  the  nation  ;  the  complicated,  extensive  and  most 
useful  machinery  of  the  post-office  department,  together  with 
various  other  espenditures.  A  few  items  in  this  account  may 
be  looked  at  with  profit.  The  military  academy  at  West 
Point  has  cost  the  nation  more  than  four  millions  of  dollars. 
Each  cadet  receives,  besides  a  gratuitous  education,  twenty- 
eight  dollars  a  month  for  the  privilege  of  being  educated  at 
the  public  expense.  There  are  kept  there  100  horses,  with 
grooms,  blacksmiths,  &c.,  for  the  accommodation  of  the  pupils. 
A  single  lesson  at  target-shooting  costs  the  nation  fifty 
dollars. 

The  salary  of  a  colonel  of  dragoons  is  82,000  ;  of  a  briga- 
dier general  ^2,958 ;  a  major  general  $4,500  ;  a  captain  of  a  ship 
of  the  line  receives  on  service  $4,500,  out  of  service  $3,500. 
A  larger  salary  for  doing  nothing  than  any  minister  of  relig- 
ion, or  president  of  a  college,  receives  in  the  United  States. 
A  single  regiment  of  dragoons  costs  annually  $700,000. 
There  are  now  at  least  three  of  these  in  the  nation,  costing 
yearly  $2,100,000.  The  cost  of  two  ships  of  the  line  has  been 
$2,000,000.  Every  gun  carried  across  the  ocean  costs  $15, 
000.  The  building  and  outfitting  of  the  line  ship,  Ohio,  cost 
$834,485.     The  expense  of  the  same  for  one  year  is  $220,000. 

During  the  fifty  years  of  peace  from  1789  to  1843,  there 
were  devoted  to  the  army  and  navy  $538,964,000.  A  moder- 
ate estimate  of  the  expenses  of  the  militia  for  the  same  period 
gives  the  enormous  sum  of  $1,335,000,000.  Of  these  sums 
there  were  spent  in  time  of  peace  more  than  sevenfcen  hundred 
millions  of  dollars — a  sum  beyond  the  power  of  human  con- 
ception. All  this  spent  in  peaceful  preparations  for  war  in 
times  of  profound  peace  ! 

These  are  a  few  of  the  facts  and  figures  in  the  case.  They 
are  such  as  may  well  arrest  the  attention  of  every  thoughtful 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  139 

mind.  Had  this  immense  expenditure  been  devoted  to  the 
education  of  the  people,  and  the  dissemination  of  Christianity 
over  the  world,  a  Christian  civilization  would  ere  this  have 
been  attained  which  would  render  future  wars  utterly  impos- 
sible. 

Since  the  foregoing  calculations  were  made  the  Mexican 
crusade  has  been  carried  through,  involving  the  nation  in  a 
direct  expenditure  of  probably  two  hundred  millions  of  dol- 
lars. The  actual  sum  of  money  paid,  however,  in  sustaining 
military  operations  is  but  a  small  part  of  the  waste  of  property 
in  actual  war.  The  withdrawal  of  troops  from  industrial 
occupations,  and  the  consequent  loss  of  their  productive  labor, 
and  the  destruction  of  property  attending  the  march  of  an 
army,  would  swell  the  estimate  to  an  amount  beyond  the 
power  of  human  conception. 

Resting  our  estimates  of  the  cost  of  war  and  military  estab- 
lishments here,  many  serious  questions  arise  to  the  mind. 
Could  not  the  objects  for  which  all  the  wars  of  this  nation 
have  been  waged,  have  been  attained  by  peaceable  arbitration  ? 
Would  not  the  nation  and  those  with  whom  she  has  been  at 
war,  have  all  been  immense  gainers  by  such  a  mode  of  adjust- 
ment?— Can  a  nation  professing  to  be  more  completely  under 
the  influence  of  Christian  civilization  than  any  other  on  the 
face  of  the  earth,  fail  to  have  incurred  fearful  guilt,  by  this 
destruction  of  those  things  which  a  beneficent  Providence  has 
provided  for  the  wants  and  happiness  of  man?  These  ques- 
tions we  can  not  now  discuss.  They  are  indeed  their  own 
answer.  Another  question,  full  of  important  suggestions, 
immediately  presents  itself.  What  has  been  gained  by  all 
this  fearful  waste  of  property  ?  By  the  Mexican  war  a  vast 
territory,  which  has  become  the  cause  of  more  wide -spread 
agitation  and  strife  than  any  that  ever  distracted  the  country. 
A  strife  that  threatens  to  tear  down  the  very  pillars  of  the 
Grovernment.  Territory  has  been  acquired,  immense  portions 
of  which  will  be  given  up  to  the  withering  curse  of  slavery, 
if  the  purposes  of  the  authors  and  supporters  of  the  war  be 
attained.  In  addition  to  this  the  nation  thinks  it  has  gained 
a  little  glory.  A  little  empty  fame.  A  crop  of  Presidential 
aspirants,  in  the  shape  of  military  commanders.  And  this  is 
candidly  and  really  all.  On  the  other  hand,  what  has  been 
lost?  What  is  always  lost  by  the  prosecution  of  war?  All 
the  immense  amount  of  property  of  which  we  have  spoken  ; 
thousands  and  thousands  of  precious  lives  ;  the  respect  of  all 
other  nations  among  whom  any  sentiments  of  honor  prevail, 


140  LIFE   AND    WRITINGS   OF 

— the  force  and  efficacy  of  a  high  and  beneficent  example  to 
the  nations  of  the  earth.  Depravation  of  public  morals, 
and  the  prevalence  of  a  military  spirit  among  the  people, 
have  resulted ;  the  disposition  to  give  military  renown  the 
precedence  to  statesmanship  and  virtue,  as  a  qualification  for 
civil  office.  These  evils  every  candid  man  must  see  as  fol- 
lowing inevitably  in  the  train  of  wars,  waged  under  circum- 
stances similar  to  those  attending  that  with  Mexico. 

But  we  must  leave  these  considerations  to  a  future  article. 
We  were  speaking  in  this  merely  of  the  expense  of  war.  The 
war  debt  of  Christendom  at  this  day  would  plant  and  sustain 
a  school,  with  a  competent  teacher,  for  every  thirty  children 
in  the  world.  It  would  build  a  church  and  support  a  preacher 
of  the  gospel  for  every  five  hundred  inhabitants  on  the  earth  ; 
sustain  a  printing-press,  and  endow  and  support  a  college  or 
university  for  every  county ;  feed  the  poor  of  all  nations ; 
sustain  the  alms-houses,  hospitals,  and  other  public  charities, 
of  the  world.  In  short,  it  would  supply  and  sustain  all  the 
instrumentalities  needed  for  the  redemption  of  the  whole 
world  from  ignorance,  superstition,  idolatry,  caste,  slavery, 
and  all  other  evils  that  afflict  the  race;  and  then  be  scarce 
half  exhausted. 

And  all  this  incalculable  amount  of  property,  that  might 
have  been  devoted  to  these  beneficent  objects,  has  been  worse 
than  wasted  in  the  prosecution  of  the  work  of  human  butch- 
ery. Brethren — children  of  one  father — made  of  one  blood — 
destined  in  a  few  brief  years  to  a  common  resting-place — have 
wasted  money  enough  to  furnish  the  means  for  fiooding  the 
earth  with  the  light  of  science  and  salvation,  in  the  fiendish 
work  of  each  other's  destruction  !  Terrible  will  be  the  reck- 
onings of  the  Judgment  Day  for  this. 

Remarks  on  other  aspects  of  the  subject  must  be  deferred 
to  future  numbers. 


War. 

There  is  an  allegory  which  tells  of  one  of  the  "  Elder 
Spirits  of  Heaven  "'  being  appointed  to  conduct  a  youthful 
angel  down  to  earth,  for  the  purpose  of  learning  the  char- 
acter of  this  world  and  its  inhabitants.  The  guardian  spirit 
conducted  his  charge  first  to  the  scene  of  conflict  between  the 
fleets  of  two  hostile  nations.  The  battle  was  raging  with 
fearful  carnage.  The  roar  of  cannon  was  incessant;  the 
wounded  lay  weltering  in  their  blood,  mingling  their  groans 


REV.   JOSEPH    GORDON.  141 

and  6ries  of  agony  with  the  din  of  battle.  The  combatants, 
■with  faces  begrimed  with  blood  and  smoke,  stood  by  their 
dread  engines  of  death,  that  at  every  discharge  revealed  their 
grim  and  ghastly  countenances,  glaring  with  all  the  fierce 
passions  of  incarnate  fiends.  For  miles  around  the  ocean 
was  discolored  with  blood ;  while  fragments  of  broken  spars 
and  masts,  and  mangled  human  bodies,  were  floating  on  the 
reddened  waters.  The  youthful  spirit  turned  to  his  conductor 
with  an  air  of  displeasure,  and  exclaimed,  "What  is  this? 
You  were  appointed  to  guide  me  to  earth,  and  you  have 
brought  me  to  hellP'' 

The  moral  of  the  legend  is  obvious.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  every  human  being,  imbued  to  any  extent  with  the  Chris- 
tian spirit,  would  be  similarly  impressed  by  such  a  spectacle, 
if  he  had  never  read  of  war  or  battle.  The  idea  that  those 
whom  God  has  made  of  one  blood  to  dwell  upon  the  face  of 
the  earth — brethren  possessed  of  a  common  nature  and  com- 
mon interests,  partakers  of  the  same  joys  and  sorrows — should 
resort  to  the  work  of  each  other's  wholesale  destruction,  for 
any  purpose  whatever,  is  one  which  were  it  not  a  stern  reality, 
would  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  wildest  freaks  of  a  distem- 
pered fancy.  Were  the  proposal  to  resort  to  war  for  any  of 
the  purposes  for  which  war  is  waged  now,  for  the  first  time, 
made,  it  would  strike  the  whole  civilized  world  with  horror. 
Yet  the  guilt  of  the  first  war  would  be  no  greater  than  if  ten 
thousand  had  been  waged  before.  The  frequency  of  the 
recurrence  of  warlike  collisions  between  hostile  nations,  while 
it  blunts  the  impression  of  their  guilt,  at  the  same  time  really 
increases  it.  From  such  a  point  of  view  as  we  have  supposed 
there  would  be  but  one  opinion  of  the  character  of  war. 
There  would  be  but  one  verdict  from  the  civilized  world.  In 
this  may  be  found,  therefore,  with  unerring  certainty,  the  tes- 
timony of  nature  and  of  nature's  God  against  the  practice  of 
war.  In  strict  harmony  with  the  revelation  of  nature  on  this 
subject  is  the  fuller  revelation  of  the  Bible.  We  shall  now 
enter  into  the  discussion  of  that  branch  of  the  question  ;  but 
basing  our  opposition  to  war  on  those  broad  grounds  of  inex- 
pediency and  immorality,  on  which  all  the  virtuous  and 
humane  may  stand  together,  we  propose  now  to  inquire  what 
can  be  done  for  the  entire  suppression  of  the  system,  and  for 
the  substitution  of  other  more  rational  methods  of  gaining 
the  ostensible  ends  for  which  wars  are  usually  waged. 

1.  The  first  thing  essential  to  the  establishment  of  uni- 
versal peace  on  earth,  is  to  dispossess  the  minds  of  men  of  the 


142  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

idea  that  wars  are  necessary  for  self-defense  among  nations. 
A  strictly  defensive  war  is,  in  this  age  of  the  world,  a  simple 
impossibility.  Let  a  nation  observe  strict  justice  in  all  its 
intercourse  with  other  nations  ;  let  it  say  to  them,  "W  e  desire 
to  live  in  peace  with  all  the  world;  any  injury  done  by  our 
agents  or  citizens,  to  the  property  or  lives  of  any  of  your  sub- 
jects, shall,  when  brought  to  our  notice,  be  promptly  redressed ; 
'  let  there  be  no  strife  between  us  ;  for  we  be  brethren  ; '  "  let 
a  nation  proclain  such  principles  as  these,  and  act  in  accord- 
ance with  them,  and  that  nation  is  safer  from  invasion  than  if 
its  fleets  darkened  every  sea,  and  its  forts  and  arsenals  frowned 
on  every  hill-top.  There  could  then  be  neither  motive  nor 
pretext  for  attack ;  and  the  nation  that  without  these  should 
invade  its  soil,  would  raise  a  storm  of  indignation  against 
itself  more  terrible  than  fleets  and  armies.  Bad  as  the  world 
is,  it  is  too  far  on  in  civilization  to  tolerate  such  open,  wanton 
aggression.  Besides,  "  There  is  a  just  God  who  presides  over 
the  destinies  of  nations,"  and  who,  "when  a  nation's  ways 
please  him,  will  cause  even  its  enemies  to  be  at  peace  with  it." 

But  so  long  as  a  strictly  defensive  war  is  admitted  as  a 
probable,  or  even  a  possible  event,  so  long  will  preparations 
for  war  be  thought  necessary  ;  and  so  long  as  men  are  trained 
for  war — so  long  as  navies  and  armies  are  kept  up — so  long 
will  wars  continue  to  devastate  the  earth.  This  assertion  is 
susceptible  of  the  clearest  demonstration,  both  from  the  truths 
of  history  and  from  the  necessary  tendency  of  such  prepara- 
tions. Frederick  the  Great,  of  Prussia,  gave  once  as  a  reason 
for  invading  a  neighboring  State,  that  "  he  had  an  army  of  one 
hundred  thousand  men  tinder  his  command^  There  is  a  vol- 
ume of  meaning  in  this  honest  confession  of  an  atrocious 
motive.  The  only  chance  for  distinction  among  military  men 
is  in  the  occurrence  of  actual  war.  The  end  of  their  entire 
education  is  to  fit  them  for  the  work  of  death  on  the  field  of 
battle.  It  is  only  there  that  they  can  show  ofi"  their  accom- 
plishments. Now,  while  a  standing  army  and  navy  are  kept 
up,  with  officers  and  men  stationed  all  over  the  country,  enjoy- 
ing, through  a  false  public  sentiment,  admission  to  the  best 
society,  and  permitted  to  exert  a  controlling  influence  over 
the  public  mind,  pretexts  for  war  will  be  found  just  as  often 
as  these  trained  and  respectable  murderers  may  wish  for  an 
opportunity  to  distinguish  themselves  by  military  achieve- 
ments. 

But  let  it  once  become  a  settled  conviction  in  the  public 
mind,  that  preparations  for  military  defense  are  unnecessary, 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  143 

and  the  army  and  navy  will  be  disbanded.  The  vessels  of 
war  will  be  employed  for  the  useful  purposes  of  commerce  ; 
and  the  soldier  compelled  to  resort  to  the  peaceful  pursuits  of 
life. 

2.  A  second  thing  which  each  one  can  do  to  hasten  the 
time  "  when  wars  shall  cease  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,"  is  to 
resolve  never,  under  any  circumstances,  to  vote  for  the  military 
man  for  any  civil  office  of  profit  or  trust.  If  the  road  to  poli- 
tical promotion  was  once  fast  closed  against  the  professional  sol- 
dier, the  days  of  the  demon  of  war  would  be  numbered.  The  very 
reverse  of  this  is  now  true  among  all  civilized  and  savage  nations. 
The  army  offers  the  surest  and  shortest  road  to  civil  and  political 
promotion.  The  qualifications  of  a  man  for  office  are  gener- 
ally counted  by  the  number  of  his  battles  and  victories,  and 
by  the  number  of  victims  he  has  slain.  This  has  come  to  be 
more  and  more  the  case  in  this  country,  and  in  the  last  Pres- 
idential election  a  large  majority  of  the  voters  of  the  country, 
by  electing  a  man  who  had  been  forty  years  in  the  army,  and 
had  never  performed  an  hour's  civil  service,  thereby  announced 
their  belief  that  nothing  but  military  prowess  was  necessary 
to  fit  a  man  for  the  highest  office  in  their  gift.  If  the  "  signs 
of  the  times  "  are  not  deceptive,  the  same  thing  is  to  be  acted 
over  again  at  the  next  electoral  canvass.  Those  things  augur 
badly  for  the  Republic.  Military  rule,  and  the  disposition  to 
honor  military  achievements  more  than  political  wisdom  and 
integrity,  and  moral  worth,  are  the  surest  precursors  of  the 
ruin  of  public  virtue,  and  the  prevalence  of  anarchy  and 
licentiousness. 

Now,  the  half  million  of  voters  in  this  country,  who  are 
the  professed  followers  of  the  Prince  of  Peace,  have  it  in  their 
power  to  arrest  this  dangerous  tendency.  Let  them  resolve, 
as  one  man,  that  no  man  who  follows  a  profession  opposed  to 
the  entire  letter  and  spirit  of  the  pure  any  peaceful  religion 
they  profess,  can  ever  under  any  circumstances,  secure  their 
votes,  and  the  politicians  will  look  elsewhere  than  to  the  army 
for  their  Presidential  and  other  candidates.  Every  professing 
Christian  who  refuses  to  do  this,  ought  to  feel  the  blood  and 
guilt  of  every  war  which  grows  out  of  a  reckless  ambition, 
resting  on  his  conscience. 

Other  means  of  hastening  the  overthrow  of  war  and  the 
war  spirit,  might  be  named.  The  dissemination  of  light  and 
truth  on  the  subject.  Facts,  arguments  and  appeals,  showing 
the  utter  failure  of  the  ordeal  of  battle  to  establish  any  right 
principle,  or  secure  any  valuable  end,  ought  to  be  brought  to 


144  LIFE    AND   WRITINGS   OF 

bear  on  the  public  mind.  Petitions  sbould  be  circulated  for 
the  abolition  of  the  army  and  navy,  and  the  substitution  of 
rational  and  Christian  modes  of  adjusting  national  difficulties. 
And  above  all,  the  fervent  prayers  of  God's  people  should  be 
offered  up  without  ceasing  for  this  glorious  consummation. 
When  the  public  heart  shall  be  awakened  to  this  great  sub- 
ject, and  become  more  deeply  imbued  with  the  spirit,  of  Him 
who  "  came  not  to  destroy  men's  lives,  but  to  save  them,"  the 
days  of  legal  and  wholesale  murder  will  be  numbered.  The 
orator  and  poet  will  then  cease  to  enshrine  the  bloody  achieve- 
ments of  the  warrior,  in  eloquence  and  song.  Their  "  gifts 
divine  "  will  then  be  consecrated  to  the  conquests  of  the  moral 
hero.  The  triumph  of  intelligence  over  ignorance,  of  light 
over  moi'al  darkness,  of  love  over  hatred,  will  then  claim  the 
admiration  of  men.  The  vision  of  the  Prophet  will  then  be 
realized;  the  swords  will  be  beaten  into  plow-shares  and  the 
spears  into  pruning-hooks  ;  and  the  nations  learn  war  no  more. 


Martial  Law  Destroys  Personal  Accountability. 

At  a  time  when  our  public  servants  are  voting  increased 
and  most  extravagant  appropriations  to  the  army  and  navy,  it 
is  highly  proper  that  the  people  should  look  closely  at  the 
organization  of  these  institutions,  which  they  are  taxed  so 
heavily  to  support.  A  well  written  article  on  the  subject  of 
martial  law  will  be  found  in  another  part  of  this  paper.  From 
the  incontrovertible  facts  and  principles  laid  down  in  that 
article,  the  conclusion  is  inevitable  that,  so  far  as  human 
instrumentality  can  do  so,  martial  law  destroys  individual 
responsibility.  Let  us  look  at  what  is  implied  in  personal 
accountability  ;  and  then  we  shall  see  how  military  law  inter- 
feres with  it. 

It  is  a  doctrine  both  of  natural  and  revealed  religion  that 
every  one  shall  give  account  of  himself  to  God.  The  very 
idea  of  a  moral  government  over  intelligent  beings,  involves 
the  doctrine  of  their  accountability  to  their  ruler.  Man's 
moral  nature  corresponds  with  this  obligation.  He  is  endowed 
with  a  judgment  to  discriminate  between  right  and  wrong, 
and  with  a  conscience  to  approve  the  one  and  condemn  the 
other.  A  law  also  has  been  given  by  the  Creator,  command- 
ing all  duty,  and  forbidding  all  crime ;  and  it  is  to  this  law 
that  he  is  accountable,  and  by  it  that  he  will  be  judged.  But 
to  render  this  accountability  just,  it  ia   necessary  that  man 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  145 

should  be  perfectly  free  to  exercise  his  judgment  in  consider- 
ing questions  of  duty,  and  free  to  follow  the  convictions  of 
his  conscience. 

But  this  freedom  of  judgment  and  of  conscience  is  just  the 
thing  which  martial  law  takes  away  from  every  soldier,  from 
the  commander-in-chief,  down  to  the  private  in  the  ranks. 
Every  man  below  the  commander-in-chief  is  bound,  under 
terrible  penalties,  to  yield  the  most  implicit  and  unquestion- 
ing obedience  to  the  orders  of  his  superior  officer,  and  the 
commander-in-chief  is  bound  to  render  the  same  obedience  to 
the  commands  of  his  government.  Prompt  and  unhesitating 
obedience  to  orders,  coupled  with  skill  and  courage  in  their 
execution,  are  the  essential  elements  of  good  soldiership.  The 
soldier  has  no  possible  use  for  a  conscience,  or  for  any  moral 
faculty  whatever.  His  whole  conduct,  as  a  soldier,  is  laid  out 
for  him  by  others.  A  cultivated  and  enlightened  conscience 
would  indeed  be  utterly  incompatible  with  military  regulations, 
as  it  would  cause  its  possessor  to  revolt  from  the  execution  of 
many  a  command  of  his  superior.  All  the  soldier  needs  is 
intelligence  enough  to  understand  his  instructions  and  courage 
and  vigor  in  carrying  them  into  execution.  But  the  question 
irresistibly  arises  here,  if  God  had  intended  men  for  soldiers 
would  he  have  endowed  them  with  faculties  which  unfit  them 
for  that  position  ?  Would  he  have  given  them  a  judgment  to 
distinguish  right  from  wrong,  and  a  conscience  to  approve  or 
condemn,  as  their  conduct  accords  or  conflicts  with  their  con- 
victions of  duty,  when  the  only  result  of  these  faculties  is  to 
unfit  them  for  the  work  of  the  soldier?  Such  incongruity 
between  means  and  ends  is  found  in  none  of  the  works  of 
God. 

Let  it  be  noted,  moreover,  that  this  absolute  submission  to 
orders  is  essentially  necessary  to  the  organization  of  an  army. 
No  army  could  hold  together  for  a  day,  in  which  every  man 
had  the  right  to  think,  decide,  and  act  for  himself.  Discip- 
line would  be  completely  at  an  end.  But  it  is  a  military 
axiom,  that  discipline  is  the  soul  of  an  army,  and  every  one 
knows  that  when  the  soul  is  out  the  body  is  dead.  It  was  not 
an  arbitrary  love  of  power  merely,  which  led  to  the  enactment 
of  the  Draconian  code  of  martial  law.  It  was  the  necessity  of 
the  case.  Entire  unity  of  counsel  and  purpo,:'e  is  indispensa- 
bly necessary  to  the  efficiency  and  success  of  military  opera- 
tions, and  that  unity  can  only  be  secured  by  placing  the  whole 
mass  under  the  absolute  control  of  a  single  mind.  To  divide 
the  supreme  command  even  between  but  two  persons,  as  has 
13 


146  LIFE  AND   WHITINGS   0¥ 

sometimes  been  done,  is  found  to  lead  almost  invariably  to 
divided  counsels,  weakness,  and  defeat.  But  it  is  not  only 
necessary  that  the  command  be  in  one  person,  but  also  that  his 
authority  be  absolute.  Even  a  murmur  against  it  is  not  to  be 
tolerated  for  a  moment.  The  organization  and  efficiency  of 
the  army  can  only  be  maintained  by  every  subordinate  officer 
and  soldier  becoming  a  mere  animated  machine,  to  execute, 
without  question  or  scruple,  the  will  of  another. 

Now  we  repeat,  that  if  it  is  right  to  place  men  in  this  abso- 
lute subjection  to  the  authority  of  another,  it  is  wrong  to  hold 
them  individually  responsible  for  their  actions.  They  have 
no  choice  but  to  obey.  There  is  no  room  for  the  exercise  of 
judgment  and  conscience.  The  soldier,  for  all  moral  pur- 
poses, is  as  much  a  tool  as  the  sword,  in  the  hands  of  his 
commander. 

But  God's  laws  may  not  be  thus  set  aside  by  human 
arrangements.  He  still  holds  men  to  their  accountability, 
and  by  no  act  of  their  own  can  they  throw  it  off.  It  still 
remains  true  that  we  must  all  appear  before  the  judgment-seat 
of  Christ ;  and  that  every  one  must  give  account  of  himself 
unto  Grod.  The  soldier's  oath  to  obey  his  leader  does  not 
free  him  from  his  obligations  to  the  higher  law  of  God ;  nor 
will  the  plea  that  he  only  obeyed  orders,  excuse  him  at  the 
bar  of  God,  for  the  crimes  he  has  committed.  No  man  has 
any  right  to  place  himself  in  a  situation  in  which  he  can  not 
exercise  his  own  free  agency  ;  and  that  must  of  necessity  be  an 
inherently  vicious  institution  which  can  only  be  maintained 
by  annihilating  men's  freedom  of  choice  and  action. 

The  fact  that  there  is  no  despotism  so  absolute  and  relent- 
less as  that  established  by  martial  law,  furnishes  the  reason 
why  standing  armies  are  ever  the  willing  and  ready  tools  of 
tyrants.  Men  educated  in  the  school  of  despotism  can  not 
be  expected  to  love  liberty.  They  who  are  voluntary  slaves 
themselves,  can  have  no  true  regard  for  the  freedom  of  others. 


Truk  and  False  Heroism. 

At  the  present  moment  a  hundred  thousand  of  the  chivalry 
of  Western  Europe,  are  gathered  in  deadly  conflict  with  a 
greater  number  of  Northern  barbarians,  around  a  Russian 
stronghold,  on  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea.  War  there  rages 
in  all  its  fury.     Death  riots  on  prey,  and   banquets  daily  on 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  147 

hecatombs  of  the  slain.  By  battle,  by  disease,  by  hunger 
and  exposure,  by  shot  and  shell,  by  bayonet  and  dagger,  the 
work  of  slaughter  goes  on.  The  wild  excitements  and  fierce 
passions  of  war  are  fanned  to  a  fearful  glow.  The  fields 
around  Sebastopol  are  fattened  with  human  blood,  and 
whitened  with  human  bones.  All  the  enginery  of  destruction 
which  modern  skill,  and  science  and  energy  have  devised,  is 
there  employed.  Stratagem  and  plot  are  brought  into  play. 
The  fierce  sortie,  and  the  dogged  and  desperate  resistance,  are 
almost  nightly  repeated.  The  angel  of  death  waves  his  dark 
wing  over  the  embattled  hosts,  and  his  foul  fiends  hold  daily 
and  nightly  revel  in  the  crammed  and  reeking  charnel-house 
which  engulfs  the    slain. 

And  this  fearful  work  of  death  has  not  even  the  extenua- 
tion of  being,  on  either  side,  a  contest  for  a  great  and  holy 
principle.  It  is  not  a  struggle  of  the  oppressed  against  the 
oppressor.  It  is  not  a  fight  for  liberty  against  despotism,  nor 
a  battle  for  the  protection  of  the  weak  against  the  strong. 
It  is  only  a  conflict  of  despots  over  points  of  barren  and  tor- 
tuous diplomacy.  The  tyrant  adventurer,  who  controls  for 
the  time  the  destinies  of  France,  and  the  efiete  aristocrats, 
who  rule  the  English  cabinet,  have  just  as  little  sympathy 
with  freedom,  as  Nicholas  or  Alexander.  The  crushed  masses 
of  Europe  have  nothing  to  hope  from  either  party,  but  every- 
thing to  fear  from  both.  As  now  waged,  the  war  is  a  wan- 
ton, useless,  reckless  waste  of  human  life. 

Yet  every  man  who  is  thus  sacrified,  is  the  center  of  a 
circle  of  home  affections.  Each  one  is  bound  to  father, 
mother,  wife,  children,  brother,  sister,  or  friend.  None  there 
so  friendless  as  to  fall  utterly  unregretted,  while  over  the  fall 
of  the  vast  majority,  loving  eyes  will  long  weep  tears  of  bit- 
ter anguish.  Many  a  lovely  home  will  be  desolated  forever. 
The  light  on  thousands  of  happy  hearth-stones  will  go  out, 
never  to  be  rekindled.  And  the  soldier  who  escapes  the 
dangers  of  the  campaign,  will  in  many  cases  come  back  so 
depraved  by  the  vicious  influences  of  the  camp,  as  to  cause 
deeper  sorrow  by  his  life  than  would  have  been  excited  by 
his  death. 

And  this  fierce  strife  of  man  with  man,  the  world  calls 
heroism.  The  more  successful  the  man  in  the  work  of  death, 
the  greater  the  honor  accorded  to  him.  When  either  party 
gains  a  partial  advantage  over  the  other,  whole  nations  shout 
in  triumph.  Public  thanks  are  returned  to  the  same  God, 
alike  by  Russian  for  the  slaughter  of  Frank  or  Englishman, 


148  LIFE   AND  WRITINGS   OF 

and  by  the  latter  for  the  destruction  of  the  Russian.  In 
temples  professedly  dedicated  to  the  worship  of  God,  te  deums 
are  chanted  over  the  gory  triumphs. 

But  it  requires  no  high  courage  to  be  a  soldier.  A  moder- 
ate share  of  the  lowest  animal  courage,  combined  with  a  large 
infusion  of  the  most  brutal  and  ferocious  of  human  passions, 
are  the  best  material  for  the  warrior.  In  entering  the  camp 
as  a  professional  soldier,  the  man  of  necessity  gives  up  his 
conscience  to  the  control  of  his  superiors.  That  high  sense 
of  right  which  shrinks  from  the  very  appearance  of  evil, 
and  that  lofty  moral  courage  which  adheres  to  the  right,  not 
only  in  the  face  of  personal  danger,  but  in  the  face  of  scorn 
and  hatred,  and  bitter  obloquy,  are  utterly  incompatible  with 
the  profession  of  arms. 

But  turning  from  the  picture  of  strife  and  carnage,  a  spec- 
tacle of  another  kind  meets  our  view.  The  war  that  has  been 
the  cause  of  all  this  display  of  wrath  and  blood,  has  been  the 
occasion  of  the  exhibition  of  pure  and  true  heroism.  A  young 
female,  of  ample  fortune  and  high  social  position,  beautiful 
in  person,  refined  in  manners,  surrounded  by  all  that  could 
minister  enjoyment  to  cultivated  and  elegant  tastes,  leaves  all 
the  endearments  of  home,  and  all  the  pleasures  of  refined 
social  life,  to  minister  to  the  sick  and  suffering  victims  of  the 
war.  She  incurs  not  only  the  loss  of  all  the  comforts  and 
enjoyments  which  her  position  commanded,  but  even  the 
sneers  and  insinuations  of  some  who  were  base  enough  to 
hint  that  her  mission  of  mercy  betrayed  a  want  of  modesty. 
And  there,  in  that  ghastly  receptacle  of  the  wounded  and  the 
dying,  on  the  shores  of  the  Bosphorus,  this  heroic  woman 
may  be  seen,  day  after  day  and  night  after  night,  moving  like 
an  angel  of  mercy  among  the  long  lines  of  the  suffering  and 
the  dying.  Her  gentle  hand  administers  the  healing  balm  to 
the  wounded,  and  cools  by  its  soft  touch  the  brow  of  the 
fevered  sufferer.  The  sight  of  ghastly  wounds,  of  gory  and 
mangled  bodies,  the  cries  of  the  agonized  sufferers,  and  the 
groans  of  the  expiring  victims,  so  shocking  and  revolting  to 
sensitive  nerves,  are  all  borne  and  braved  with  a  lofty  moral 
heroism,  before  which  the  brute  courage  of  the  soldier  is 
totally  eclipsed. 

Look  at  the  two  pictures.  On  the  one  side  "  the  smoking 
hell  of  battle,"  where  all  that  is  fierce,  and  foul,  and  fiendish 
in  human  passion,  seethes  and  rages  in  its  fiery  flow.  On  the 
other,  the  gentle  ministry  of  purest  and  holiest  benevolence. 
From  the  battle-plain  goes  up  the  roar  of  cannon,  and  bomb- 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  149 

sliell,  the  fierce  shouts  of  the  combatants,  the  shrieks  of  the 
wounded,  the  groans  of  the  dying,  the  mingled  cry  of  agony 
from  horse  and  man.  From  the  receptacle  of  the  wounded 
sounds  clear  and  soft  the  gentle  tones  of  love ;  the  voice  of 
Christian  sympathy  and  soothing  consolation.  Almost  in 
hearing  of  the  conflict  breathes  forth  that  still  small  voice, 
with  its  music  of  love. 

"Like  lutes  of  angels,  touched  so  near 
Hell's  confines,  that  the  damned  can  hear." 

On  the  one  side,  the  rage  of  man  mutilates  and  destroys 
his  brother ;  on  the  other,  the  loving  ministry  of  woman 
binds  up  the  wounds  and  soothes  the  pains  of  the  victims. 
The  one  curses,  the  other  blesses.  The  one  destroys,  the 
other  saves.  From  the  one  goes  up  the  hoarse  imprecation, 
the  foul  blasphemy,  the  shriek  of  rage  and  hate  ;  from  the 
other  the  tones  of  kindness,  the  voice  of  hope,  and  the  accents 
of  prayer. 

And  yet,  of  these  pictures  so  broadly  contrasted,  the  first 
fills  by  far  the  largest  portion  of  the  world's  history,  even 
among  nations  calling  themselves  Christian.  The  heroes, 
falsely  so  called,  of  blood  and  carnage,  are  those  whose  names 
stand  highest  on  the  scroll  of  earthly  fame,  while  the  deeds 
of  sacred  charity  and  love,  from  earth's  true  heroes  and  hero- 
ines, are  altogether  unnoted,  or  passed  by  as  things  of  little 
worth.  But  it  will  not  be  always  thus.  Even  now  the  faint 
dawning  of  a  better  day  may  be  detected  by  the  spiritual  eye. 
"  The  soldier's  name  will  be  a  name  abhorred,"  while  earth's 
true  heroes  will  be  recognized  in  those  whose  lives  are  given 
to  bless  and  save  the  race. 


"  Look  on  This  Picture,  and  on  This." 

Congress  has  recently  passed  a  bill  creating  the  oflice  of 
Lieutenant  Grcneral,  conferring  the  ofiiee  upon  General  Scott, 
giving  him  S30,000  for  past  services,  and  adding  ^1,600  a 
year  to  his  salary,  which  was  $7,000  per  annum  before.  The 
bill  has  received  the  signature  of  the  President,  and  gone  into 
effect.  This  act  of  Congress  is  in  harmony  with  the  received 
and  prevailing  sentiment  of  the  country.  To  honor  and  pay 
her  military  commanders  is  part  of  the  standing  policy  of  our 
country.     The  general,  the  commander  of  a  man-of-war.  and 


150  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OP 

even  "  the  swearing  frontier  colonel,"  receive  from  three  to 
six  times  the  salary  of  our  college  presidents  and  professors, 
and  our  ministers  of  the  gospel.  Then  the  former  are  the 
stuff  of  which  Presidents  and  Senators  are  made.  The  act 
of  pensioning  Gleneral  Scott,  therefore,  is  consistent  with  past 
policy  and  the  prevailing  public  sentiment. 

But,  while  we  admit  the  consistency  of  the  measure  with 
the  popular  practice  and  opinion,  we  condemn  the  morality 
of  both  the  act  and  the  sentiment  that  sanctions  it.  Without 
asserting  any  extreme  views  of  the  wickedness  of  war  in  all 
cases,  we  yet  maintain,  with  all  confidence,  that  the  profes- 
sional soldier  is  neither  more  nor  less  than  a  professional 
murderer.  His  contract  with  his  Government  is  to  kill  whom- 
soever it  may  order  him  to  kill,  without  ever  asking  the  ques- 
tion whether  those  he  is  commanded  to  destroy  are  innocent 
or  guilty.  The  first  and  last  duty  of  the  soldier,  from  the 
commander-in-chief  down  to  the  private,  is  to  obei/  orders. 
He  has  no  right  to  exercise  his  own  conscience  and  judgment 
in  considering  whether  the  order  is  right  or  wrong.  The 
exercise  of  his  moral  sense  in  this  way  would  destroy  all  dis- 
cipline, and  discipline  is  the  life  and  soul  of  an  army.  If  the 
soldier  has  the  right  to  judge  of  the  right  or  wrong  of  his 
orders,  he  must  also  have  the  right  to  cany  out  his  convic- 
tions;  and  if  he  concludes,  on  a  calm  and  conscientious 
review  of  the  case,  that  his  orders,  in  any  instance,  are  to 
commit  a  great  crime,  he  should  have  liberty  to  refuse  to  obey, 
otherwise  his  right  of  private  judgment  is  a  farce.  But  the 
attempt  to  do  this  will  cost  the  soldier  his  head.  It  is  neither 
more  nor  less  than  mutiny,  and  a  court-martial  would  make 
short  work  with  the  mutineer.  The  general  gives  himself 
over,  body  and  soul,  to  his  Government,  and  binds  himself  to 
do  just  what  that  Government  commands  hirn,  "asking  no 
questions  for  conscience  sake."  The  private  soldier  gives 
himself  up  to  the  same  unconditional  subjection  to  his  supe- 
rior officer.  Without  strict  subjection  there  can  be  no  dis- 
cipline, and  without  discipline  an  army  becomes  a  mob. 

But  aggressive  war  is  wholesale  murder,  whatever  defen- 
sive war  may  be.  Every  life  lost  in  a  war  of  aggression  is  a 
murder  with  malice  aforethought,  and  if  hanging  were  right, 
ought  to  cause  the  execution  of  the  officers  of  Government 
that  declare  the  war  and  the  army  that  wages  it.  There  is  no 
escape  from  this  conclusion,  unless  a  multitude  may  nullify  the 
lavv'  uf  God.  If  the  private  man  who  makes  aggression  upon  his 
neighbor,  and  hires  a  professional  assaesin  to  kill  him,  is  a 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  151 

murderer,  so  the  government  which  makes  aggression  on  its 
neighbor,  and  sends  its  hired  butchers  to  kill  its  subjects,  is 
guilty  of  wholesale  murder.  And  as  the  hireling  who  kills 
in  the  service  of  one  man  is  judged  guilty  of  murder,  so  the 
hireling  who  kills  in  the  service  of  twenty  millions  of  men  is 
also  a  murderer. 

But  this  is  just  what  General  Scott  and  the  whole  of  his 
subordinates  have  done.  This  is  just  what  the  Government 
ordered  them  to  do,  and  for  doing  this  he  is  now  rewarded. 
The  war  in  which  his  freshest  laurels  were  won,  was  a  war  of 
wanton  aggression,  according  to  his  own  assertion,  and  the 
unanimous  vote  of  the  political  party  to  which  he  belongs. 
It  was  his  exploits  in  this  war  that  brought  him  prominently 
before  the  American  people.  And  for  his  great  skill  and  suc- 
cess in  blowing  out  the  brains  of  innocent  men,  women  and 
children,  he  is  promoted  and  rewarded,  and  the  President 
promptly  sanctions  the  act  of  Congress  conferring  title  and 
wealth  upon  the  professional  assassin  in  epaulettes. 

This  is  one  side  of  the  picture.  Let  us  turn  the  canvass, 
and  look  upon  the  other. 

A  few  years  ago  a  young  female,  moved  by  the  compassionate 
spirit  of  Christian  love,  devoted  her  life  to  the  cause  of  the 
sufiering.  Those  unfortunate  members  of  the  human  family 
who  have  lost  the  use  of  their  reason,  were  the  especial 
objects  of  her  sympathy.  Like  an  angel  of  mercy,  she  passed 
from  asylum  to  asylum,  and  from  prison  to  prison.  Her  path- 
way was  as  a  line  of  light  over  a  dark  background  of  sin  and 
sorrow.  Wherever  her  deep,  low  tones  of  love  fell  on  the 
ears  of  the  raving  maniac,  his  passions  were  stilled.  In  mute 
rapture  he  drank  in  the  heavenly  music,  and  the  demon  of 
his  breast  was  for  the  time  cast  out.  She  penetrated  like 
Howard  and  Mrs.  Fry,  the  most  dismal  dens  of  suffering. 
Like  them  she  carried  hope  and  life  to  many  of  their  inmates. 
Through  her  efforts  the  old  and  barbarous  modes  of  treating 
the  insane,  were  superseded  by  others  more  rational  and 
more  merciful.  Love  was  substituted  for  fear,  in  their  man- 
agement. Physical  comfort  took  the  place  of  squalid  misery. 
The  means  of  intellectual  and  moral  training  were  provided. 
The  fruits  of  these  efforts  have  been  the  restoration  of  the 
shattered  powers  of  many  an  intellect  to  their  wonted  harmony. 
Many  a  raving  maniac,  touched  by  the  magic  power  of  her 
Christian  love  and  sympathy,  has  been  seen  sitting  at  her  feet, 
"  clothed  and  in  his  right  mind." 

To  aid  in  the  enlarged  and  comprehensive  schemes  which 


152  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

her  expansive  benevolence  devised,  Miss  Dix  sought  an  appro- 
priation of  a  part  of  the  public  domain  for  the  use  of  the 
wretched  objects  of  her  sympathy.  She  sought  no  wealth  for 
herself,  but  only  the  accouiplishment  of  her  noble  schemes  of 
philanthropy.  And  the  present  Congress,  to  their  praise  be 
it  spoken,  after  long  and  earnest  solicitation,  granted  her 
prayer.  The  bill  appropriating  a  portion  of  the  public  lauds 
to  this  object  was  passed.  But  no  sooner  does  it  reach  tho 
hands  of  the  President,  elected  though  he  was  by  people 
claiming  to  be  Christians,  than  it  is  promptly  vetoed.  Just  as 
the  long-cherished  hopes  of  that  loving  and  gentle  heart  were 
about  to  be  realized,  the  tyrannical  one-man  power  interposes 
to  dash  the  sweet  draught  from  her  lips.  The  hopes  of  thous- 
ands of  the  unfortunate  and  suffering  were  crushed  by  the 
same  cowardly  and  perfidious  blow  ;  and  the  "  outer  darkness," 
over  which  bright  gleams  of  hope  were  beginning  to  shine, 
was  rendered  blacker  than  before.  Heart-sick  and  sorrowful, 
the  angel  missionary  of  the  unfortunate  left  our  shores  to 
pursue  her  work  of  mercy  in  a  foreign  land. 

These  pictures  teach  their  own  moral.  Franklin  Pierce 
is  an  average  representative  of  the  statesmanship,  morality 
and  religion  of  our  country.  He  is  neither  far  above  nor  far 
below  the  standard  of  benevolence  and  religion  by  which  the 
mass  of  the  people,  in  and  out  of  the  church,  are  governed. 
The  religion  of  the  land  has  no  quarrel  with  the  leading  acts 
of  his  administration.  The  mass  of  the  ministers  and  mem- 
bers of  the  churches  voted  either  for  him  or  General  Scott  at 
the  last  Presidential  election,  and  gave  no  evidence  of  peni- 
tence for  the  deed.  What  is  the  obvious  inference  from  all 
this  ?  Evidently  that  the  people  of  this  country  esteem  him 
who  destroys  life  worthy  of  more  honor  and  reward  than  him 
who  tries  to  save  it  and  alleviate  its  woes.  Yet,  Christ  "  came 
not  to  destroy  men's  lives,  but  to  save  them."  Is  that  his 
religion  which  honors  the  professional  destroyers  of  life,  while 
it  denies  the  means  of  relieving  human  suffering  to  the 
benevolent? 


Drunkard  Making. 

This  infamous  business  is  frightfully  on  the  increase  in  all 
parts  of  the  land.  Never  before  were  the  manufacture,  sale 
and  consumption  of  intoxicating  poisons  so  great;  and  never 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  153 

before  were  these  poisons  so  deadly  and  fatal  to  human  life. 
The  pure  liquors  which  our  fathers  drank  were  harmless  com- 
pared with  the  drugged  and  adulterated  compounds  which  the 
tipplers  of  this  age  imbibe.  One  of  the  most  alarming  feat- 
ures of  this  increase  of  drunkenness  is  that  it  embraces, 
more  than  ever  before,  the  female  sex.  When  the  mothers  of 
the  people  become  intemperate,  then,  indeed,  may  we  expect 
to  become  actually  a  nation  of  drunkards.  The  children  will 
literally  drink  the  poison  with  their  mother's  milk,  and 
become  possessed  of  the  depraved  taste  of  the  inebriate  by 
natural  inheritance.  That  things  are  tending  rapidly  to  this 
terrible  state  admits  of  no  serious  doubt. 

The  invariable  results  of  this  increase  of  drunkenness  are 
witnessed  every  day.  Crime  keeps  pace  with  its  cause.  Our 
nation,  though  young  in  years,  is  old  in  guilt.  Murder,  rape, 
arson,  burglary,  thuggery,  are  commonplace.  The  prover- 
bial ingenuity  of  our  people  is  exercised  with  dire  success  in 
the  invention  of  new  modes  of  transgression.  The  catalogue 
of  crime  is  rapidly  lengthening.  "Hoarse,  horrible  and 
strong,"  rises  to  heaven  the  cry  of  guilt  and  the  skies  grow 
black  with  its  portentous  clouds. 

This  state  of  things  presents  to  every  serious  mind  a  sub- 
ject of  the  most  anxious  reflection.  Where  is  all  this  to  end  ? 
How  shall  it  be  remedied  ?  Has  the  temperance  reformation 
been,  after  all,  only  a  signal  and  disastrous  failure?  To  what 
causes  is  this  immense  increase  of  drunkenness  to  be  attrib- 
uted? and  how  shall  those  causes  be  removed?  These  are 
questions  that  call  for  the  most  serious  and  anxious  thought. 
The  subject  must  be  probed  to  the  bottom.  It  can  never  be 
successfully  dealt  with  by  superficial  thinkers  and  flippant 
declaimers.  School-boy  rant  about  the  evils  of  intemperance, 
or  the  inefiiciency  of  prohibitory  laws  is  vastly  out  of  place. 
None  but  minds  that  can  trace  efiects  to  causes  with  logical 
precision,  and  that  are  wise  to  apply  the  adequate  remedy  to 
the  evil,  are  fit  to  grapple  with  this  momentous  subject. 

That  the  temperance  movement,  which  has  occupied  so 
large  a  share  of  the  attention  of  the  public  for  the  past  thirty 
years,  has  been  at  least  a  partial  failure,  admits  of  no  denial. 
It  has  not  freed  the  nation  from  drunkenness.  It  has  saved 
thousands  undoubtedly  from  the  drunkard's  grave,  but  for 
every  one  thus  saved,  probably  hundreds  have  perished.  And 
now  the  force  of  the  movement  seems  nearly  spent.  The 
barriers  which  it  erected  to  the  progress  of  the  black  tide  of 

14 


154  LIFE    AND   WRITINGS    OF 

intemperance  are  being  swept  away,  and  the  weary  work  is  all 
to  do  over  again. 

Now,  if  we  can  ascertain  the  cause  of  this  failure  of  past 
efforts  for  the  suppression  of  drunkenness,  the  knowledge  of 
that  cause  will  guard  the  friends  of  temperance  against  like 
failure  in  future.  The  prime  cause  of  that  failure  is  undoubt- 
edly the  fact  that  the  cause  failed  fully  to  enlist  the  religion 
of  the  country.  The  religion  of  a  nation,  whether  true  or 
false  is  the  controlling  power  of  that  nation.  The  reason  is 
that  the  religious  element  of  man's  nature  is  the  controlling 
power  of  the  individual  man.  The  Church  and  priesthood  of 
a  nation,  as  the  embodiment  and  exponent  of  its  religion,  are 
consequently  its  controlling  institution.  By  these  the  public 
opinion  of  the  people  is  molded.  By  these  the  government 
is  shaped,  and  the  laws  framed. 

Now  this  which  is  true,  more  or  less,  of  all  nations,  is  pre- 
eminently true  of  this  nation  where  the  people  are  the  gov- 
ernment. Any  cause,  therefore,  in  this  land,  which  does  not 
array  the  religion  of  the  people  in  its  favor,  must  fail,  and 
hence  the  partial  failure  of  the  temperance  reformation.  It 
has  only  had  a  partial  support  from  religion,  and  has  there- 
fore been  but  partially  successful.  The  Christianity  of  the 
country  has  all  been  in  favor  of  temperance,  as  it  is  the  foun- 
dation of  all  true  reform,  and  as  temperance  is  one  of  the 
Christian  virtues.  But  the  Church  and  clergy  of  the  nation 
have,  to  a  large  extent,  been  arrayed  against  the  cause.  There 
is  not  a  large  and  influential  denomination  of  professing  Chris- 
tians in  the  country  in  which  the  makers  and  sellers  of  intox- 
icating drinks  do  not  enjoy  full  fellowship.  But  a  few  of  the 
smaller  churches  make  these  practices  a  bar  to  communion. 
The  popular  religion  of  the  country  has  no  quarrel  with 
drunkard-making.  The  true  Christians  in  all  the  sects  are 
opposed  to  the  iniquity,  but  these  are  probably  largely  in  the 
minority.  Ministers,  elders,  class-leaders  and  deacons  may 
and  do  carry  on  grog-shops  and  run  distilleries  without  losing 
their  standing  in  the  professed  church.  Thus  the  cloak  of 
religion  is  thrown  around  these  practices  of  atrocious  crimi- 
nality. They  are  made  respectable  by  the  Church,  and  find 
their  safest  resting-place  beneath  the  altars  of  the  professed 
churches  of  the  Lord  of  hosts. 

If  we  are  correct  in  these  positions,  then  the  true  course  of 
the  temperance  reformers  is  evident.  They  must  begin  at  the 
foundation.  They  must  purify  the  fountain.  They  must 
array  the  religion  of  the  country  against  the  infamous  and 


REV.   JOSEPH    GORDON.  155 

guilty  business  of  drunkard-making.  They  should  call  upon 
the  churches  to  array  themselves  on  the  side  of  temperance. 
They  should  abandon  every  church  organization  that  refuses 
to  do  this.  A  church  at  this  day,  which  fellowships  the  crime 
of  drunkard-making,  or  even  refuses  to  denounce  and  oppose 
it,  is  that  far  false  to  God,  and,  on  that  point,  in  league  with 
the  Devil.  Their  true  character  should  be  exhibited,  and  the 
cloak  of  affected  piety  torn  off.  A  professed  church  which 
will  not  raise  its  voice  and  wield  all  its  power  in  opposition  to 
a  business  which  sends  annually  thirty  thousand  souls  to  the 
drunkard's  hell,  is  a  curse  to  the  world,  and  a  libel  on  Chris- 
tianity. Its  influence,  if  it  can  not  be  brought  into  the  right 
channel,  should  therefore  be  destroyed. 

When  the  religion  of  the  country  is  separated  from  its  com- 
plicity with  drunkenness,  and  arrayed  on  the  side  of  temper- 
ance, the  work  will  be  done.  Laws  for  its  suppression  can 
then  be  made  and  executed,  as  the  public  opinion  in  which 
laws  have  their  origin  and  efficiency  will  be  pure  and  right. 


156  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 


CONTROVERSIAL    ARTICLES. 


[From  tho  Free  Presbyterian.] 

Communication  from  the  Hon.  Horace  Mann. 

Mr.  Gordon  :  —  I  thank  you  for  your  laudatory  remarks 
upon  the  performances  of  the  graduating  class  at  our  late 
Commencement.  Coming  from  so  good  a  judge  as  yourself, 
they  confirm  the  opinion  which  I  hear  from  so  many  other 
sources,  that  the  members  of  that  class  acquitted  themselves 
in  a  highly  reputable  manner. 

The  commendation  you  were  pleased  to  give  to  the  main 
points  of  my  Baccalaureate  Address,  was  most  acceptable  ;  for 
it  gives  me  assurance  that  you  will  labor  with  me  for  effect- 
ing the  great  reform  there  advocated. 

It  may  seem  ungracious  in  me,  after  accepting  your  gen- 
eral approval  of  my  performance,  to  except  to  your  single 
criticism  or  animadversion  upon  it.  But  such  is  the  way 
with  what  we  call  "poor  human  nature."  We  think  a  man 
very  wise  while  he  agrees  with  us,  but  how  suddenly  is  he 
bereft  of  wisdom  when  he  comes  to  differ. 

I  fully  acquit  you  of  any  intention  to  misrepresent  me  ; 
and  yet,  the  omission  of  an  idea  which  I  several  times 
repeated,  gives,  as  it  seems  to  me,  all  its  plausibility  to  your 
criticism.  My  position  was  not,  as  you  aver,  that  "  supposing 
there  were  fifty  difi'erent  sects,  forty-nine  of  them  must  be 
wrong,  and  the  whole  fifty  ini(/Jit  be."  Each  time  I  had  occa- 
sion to  refer  to  the  difixjrences  between  the  sects,  I  said, 
"  forty-nine  out  of  the  fifty  must  be  wholly  or  partly  wrong." 
By  the  alternative  words  "  or  partly,"  which  you  did  not 
hear,  or  forgot,  one  of  the  points  of  your  criticism  becomes 
wholly  inapplicable. 

At  the  same  time  the  starting-point  of  my  argument  is 
left  untouched  ;  which  was,  that,  so  far  as  the  sects  diff"er 
from  each  other,  all  but  one  (possibly  all)  must  be  wrong. 
So  far  as  the  fifty  sects  inculcate  their  hostile  views  upon  the 
minds  of  youth,  they  inculcate  forty-nine  errors  at  the  least, 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  157 

to  one  truth.  For,  if  we  say  that  the  fifty,  in  their  distinc- 
tive points,  are  all  true,  we  affirm  truth  and  error  to  be 
identical. 

This  being  mathematically  certain,  what  is  the  best  method 
of  discovering  that  truth  which  lies  wholly,  or  partly,  outside 
of  them  all,  or  outside  of  all  but  one? 

How  is  Truth  to  be  discovered  ?  Doubtless,  according  to 
the  order  of  God's  providence,  by  human  instrumentalities  ; 
for  we  do  not  expect  a  new  and  special  revelation  from  God 
on  that  subject.  Now,  what  are  the  best  and  highest  of  pos- 
sible instrumentalities  for  the  discovering  of  truth  by  men — 
by  the  sects  ?  I  answer,  diligence  in  searching  for  truth  as 
the  supreme  good,  and  candor  and  impartiality  of  spirit  in 
discerning  between  truth  and  error ;  in  one  word,  a  power  of 
honest  investigation  and  reception.  And  what  does  more 
than  all  other  things  to  destroy  this  candor  and  impartiality 
of  spirit — this  power  of  honest  investigation  and  reception  ? 
I  answer,  the  notorious  fact  that  each  sect  trains  up  its 
children  and  youth  to  believe  that  its  own  dogmas — those  in 
which  it  dififers  from  others  not  less  than  those  in  which  it 
agrees,  are  true,  and  that  all  conflicting  ones  are  false. 

Now  the  authorities  and  arguments  by  which  these  con- 
flicting points  are  to  be  vindicated  or  assailed,  demand  the 
most  extensive  research,  the  soundest  and  best  trained  judg- 
ment, and,  above  all,  a  mind  so  poised  in  impartiality,  that 
the  slightest  preponderance  of  evidence  will  turn  the  beam. 
Yet  nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  the  teachings  of  these 
dogmas  to  children  and  youth,  in  catechisms,  creeds,  or  by 
oral  instruction,  as  ultimate  truths,  unfits  the  mind — the  very 
instrument  to  be  used  for  the  discovery  of  truth — for  making 
that  noblest  of  all  discoveries.  This  early  inculcation  does 
all  it  can  to  make  present  difi'erences  perpetual ;  so  that  if  each 
sect  could  fulfill  its  own  desires  in  regard  to  its  own  disciples 
or  pupils,  a  thousand  years  hence  would  find  the  Christian 
world  quarreling  on  the  same  points  which  would  now  embit- 
ter and  disgrace  it.  Now,  instead  of  kindling  in  the  youth- 
ful mind  the  supreme  love  of  truth,  and  training  it  to  the 
honest  use  of  all  those  methods  of  exegesis  by  which  Scrip- 
tural truth  can  be  discovered,  almost  all  our  private  schools, 
our  Sunday-schools  and  our  colleges,  are  disabling  the  rising 
generation  from  discovering  where  truth  lies ;  and  are  thus 
perpetuating  these  strifes  and  contentions  of  the  sects  by 
which  the  body  of  Christ  is  wounded  and  pierced  with  pains, 
I  have  no  doubt,  sharper  than  those  of  Calvary. 


158  LIFE   AND   WETTINGS   OP 

Now,  what  I  would  venture  to  suggest  as  a  better  course, 
iSj^that  sound  morality  should  be  made  a  peremptory  condi- 
tion in  all  cases  of  college  standing  and  graduation,  and  that 
all  the  knowledge  and  argument  which  can  bear  upon  con- 
troverted points  should  be  honestly  and  impartially  communi- 
cated ;  and  then,  that  the  mind  of  our  youth  should  be  left 
free  and  unbiased  to  form  its  own  conclusions.  Who  does 
not  see  that  such  a  mind  would  have  a  far  better  chance  of 
discovering  truth  than  you  or  I  ever  had  ? 

Nor  does  this  suggestion  of  mine  lead  to  any  laxity  of 
Christian  doctrine.  It  tends  rather  to  establish  the  true  doc- 
trines of  the  gospel  on  firmer  ground  than  ever  before. 

It  is  as  in  science.  When  the  great  body  of  accredited 
scientific  expounders  agree,  we  teach  youth  accordingly. 
When  there  are  two  schools,  we  announce  the  prevalent 
doctrine,  but  always  qualify  it  by  a  full  and  fair  statement  of 
the  dissenting  authorities.  If  I  departed  from  this  rule,  and 
suppressed  the  views  of  acknowledged  great  men  because  I 
did  not  aglee  with  them,  I  should  consider  myself  a  bigot  iu 
science  and  unworthy  to  teach  it. 

So  when  we  encounter  controverted  points  in  religion,  let 
us  frankly  state  the  great  names  and  fairly  present  the  argu- 
ments on  all  sides — acting  magnanimously  toward  our  antag- 
onists— so  that  the  new,  unsophisticated,  unpreoccupied  mind 
may  hold  the  balances  more  steadily  than  the  teacher  was 
able  to  do.  It  is  in  this  way  that  science  has  made  such 
immense  advances,  and  that  conflicting  philosophies  are  so 
rapidly  harmonizing  and  blending  into  one  ;  while  the  science 
of  theology  remains  nearly  or  quite  stationary,  and  the 
Ishmaelitish  sects,  whose  hands  are  against  every  man,  are  on 
the  increase. 

In  closing  this  topic,  you  say  you  "  can  understand  why  an 
infidel  should  seek  to  magnify  the  alleged  differences  among 
Christian  sects,  but  can  not  understand  what  interest  a 
'  Christian  '  has  in  so  doing."  As  you  must  now  perceive 
that  so  far  from  having  any  desire  to  "  magnify  differences 
among  Christian  sects,"  my  sole  aim  is  to  obliterate  those 
differences  by  eliminating  the  errors  which  make  us  differ, 
and  evolving  the  truth  on  which  we  can  agree,  you  must  also 
see  that  the  sting  which  you  inserted  in  that  paragraph  is 
beautifully  extracted. 

Again  you  say  :  "  If  a  particular  denomination  establishes 
a  college,  they  must  do  one  of  three  things  in  this  matter  : 
they  must  either  teach  what  they  themselves  believe  to  be  the 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  159 

true  religion,  or  they  must  teach  what  somebody  else  believes, 
or  teach  no   religion  at  all."     And  again:  "So  far  as  Presi 
dent  Mann  teaches  his  students  religion,  he  teaches  what  he 
himself  believes  to  be  true,  and  not  the  notions  of  somebody 
else." 

Now,  my  dear  sir,  in  the  first  of  the  above  quotations, 
which  is  matter  of  opinion,  I  think  you  are  wholly  wrong; 
in  the  second,  which  is  a  matter  of  fact,  I  know  you  are  so. 
So  far  as  I  teach  religion — and  I  have  a  very  large  Sunday- 
school  class  every  Sabbath — in  elucidating  points  upon  which 
there  is  a  substantial  agreement  between  all  Christian  sects, 
I  have  no  occasion  to  note  any  differences  ;  but  when  I  come 
to  a  contested  point,  I  endeavor,  with  the  utmost  honesty  of 
my  heart,  and  the  utmost  ability  of  my  head,  to  set  forth  the 
views  of  others  as  fully  as  my  own.  Indeed,  on  those  points, 
I  refrain  from  announcing  that  I  have  any  views.  I  assume, 
as  far  as  in  me  lies,  a  judicial  character.  I  present  the 
evidence  fully  and  impartially  to  the  jury,  whose  province  it 
is  to  decide.  I  refrain  from  doing  as  many  judges  do,  getting 
down  into  the  jury  seats,  and  usurping  their  functions.  If, 
then,  in  any  point,  you  and  I  differ,  I  mean  they  shall  under- 
stand your  views  as  completely,  as  profoundly  as  they  do 
mine,  so  that,  after  full  opportunities  of  investigation,  if  they 
discard  your  opinions,  they  shall  see  the  reasons  why  ;  and 
if  they  should  afterward  encounter  you,  or  one  of  your  one- 
sided, half-taught  disciples,  they  will  know  the  holes  in  your 
armor  through  which  they  can  perforate  your  vitals,  and  let 
the  day-light  of  truth  shine  in  wliere  it  had  never  shone  before. 

You  must  now  see,  that  by  the  three  methods  enumerated 
in  your  paragraph,  above  quoted,  you  did  not  exhaust  the 
subject  as  you  supposed,  but  left  out  wholly  what  I  conceive 
to  be  the  best  method  of  all,  and  the  only  true  one,  namely, 
that  of  a  full  and  fair  presentation  to  the  minds  of  the  young, 
of  all  the  facts  and  arguments  which  have  a  bearing  upon 
contested  points,  so  that  their  minds  may  not  be  fettered  by 
the  prejudices  which  all  who  have  been  educated  in  the  com- 
mon way  can  not  help  bringing  to  the  subject.  When  an 
exciting  cause  is  to  be  tried  in  a  civil  court,  does  not  every 
honest  judge  examine  the  jurors  upon  oath,  to  learn  whether 
they  have  expressed  or  formed  an  opinion  on  the  case ;  and 
does  he  not  set  aside,  as  unfit  to  be  upon  the  panel,  those  who 
have  formed  such  an  opinion?  Every  man  sees  and  feels 
the  reasonableness  of  this  course.  Yet  this  is  just  the  reverse 
of  what  is  done  in  regard  to  controverted  religious  doctrines, 


160  LIFE    AND    WRITINGS    OF 

in  most  of  our  private  schools,  Sabbath-schools,  colleges,  and 
theological  seminaries.  Hence,  Truth,  claiming  by  divine 
warrant  to  be  heard,  is  silenced  ;  error,  worthy  of  annihila- 
tion, is  perpetuated,  and  hostile  sects,  the  scandal  of  the 
Christian  religion,  are  increased. 

I  trust  I  need  not  assure  you  that  it  is  not  at  all  from  any 
personal  feeling,  excited  by  your  animadversion  (for  I  believe 
you  wholly  incapable  of  desiring  to  do  me  injustice),  but 
only  because  I  believe  a  truth,  most  sacred  in  itself,  and 
most  indispensable  to  human  progress,  has  been  assailed,  that 
I  trouble  you  with  these  remarks. 

As  I  am  expecting  to  leave  town,  I  may  not  see  your  com- 
ments upon  this  communication  (should  you  deem  it  worthy 
of  any),  but,  trusting  to  your  candor  and  sense  of  justice,  I 
leave  it  in  your  hands  without  apprehension. 
Yours,  very  truly, 

Horace  Mann. 

Yellow  Springs,  July  13th,  1857. 


Reply. 


We  publish  very  cheerfully  the  preceding  article  of  Presi- 
dent Mann.  We  had  not  the  remotest  intention  to  misstate 
his  position.  We  have  long  since  learned  that  truth  gains 
nothing  by  misrepresentation.  For  the  President,  personally, 
we  entertain  none  but  feelings  of  the  highest  respect,  and  the 
most  unaffected  kindness ;  and  if  there  is  the  appearance  of 
"  a  sting  "  in  a  single  sentence  of  our  former  article,  we  beg  to 
assure  him  that  it  was  not  so  intended. 

But  after  a  re-examination  of  the  subject,  since  the  recep- 
tion of  Mr.  Mann's  communication,  and  with  the  light  of  his 
explanations  before  us,  we  are  fully  satisfied  of  the  substantial 
justness  of  our  "criticism."  Let  it  be  distinctly  noted  that 
the  only  thing  to  which  we  excepted,  in  the  President's  most 
eloquent  address,  was  the  application  of  his  strictures  on  sec- 
tarian education  to  Protestant  evangelical  sects.  That  they 
may  be  abundantly  just,  as  applied  to  all  other  sects,  it  is  not 
for  us  to  deny.  The  terms  Protestant  and  evangelical  have 
a  well-defined  and  well-understood  meaning,  and  it  is  only  of 
sects  answering  to  these  descriptive  terms  that  we  assume  to 
speak. 

Two  things  must  be  true  to  form  a  valid  basis  (or  the  Presi- 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  161 

dent's  argument.  First:  There  must  be,  if  not  vital  and  fun- 
damental, at  least  grave  and  important  doctrinal  differences 
between  these  sects.  Second:  The  teaching  of  their  distinc- 
tive principles  must  be  extensively,  if  not  generally  practiced 
in  the  literary  institutions  under  their  control :  For  if  the 
theoretical  differences  among  Protestant  denominations  are 
comparatively  trivial,  and  if  they  teach  these  differences  in 
their  schools  and  colleges  only  in  a  few  obscure  and  excep- 
tional cases,  then  it  was  hardly  worth  the  President's  while 
to  spend  his  eloquent  reprobation  upon  them ;  and  certainly, 
in  that  case,  he  would  not  be  justified  in  representing  the 
differences  as  important,  and  their  inculcation  in  denomina- 
tional schools  as  general.  Now  we  venture  to  question  the 
truth  of  both  these  alleged  facts.  Certainly,  in  the  great 
majority  of  cases  the  doctrinal  differences  among  evangelical 
denominations  are  comparatively  trifling,  and  even  where  they 
differ  the  most,  theoretically,  they  agree  practically.  For 
instance,  no  parties  among  these  sects  differ  more  widely, 
perhaps,  than  Calvinists  and  Arminians.  But  while  they 
differ  in  points  of  speculation,  they  harmonize  in  views  of 
duty.  For  example,  the  Calvinist — to  use  the  technical,  theo- 
logical language  of  these  parties — believes  in  "  the  persever- 
ance of  the  saints,"  while  the  Arminian  believes  in  "  falling 
from  grace."  But  both  believe  that  it  is  a  man's  duty  to  "  take 
heed  lest  he  fall  " — that  watchfulness  is  necessary  in  him  who 
would  live  a  true  Christian  life.  The  one  believes  in  election, 
and  the  other  don't.  But  each  believes  that  he  should  "  give 
all  diligence  to  make  his  calling  and  election  sure."  Then  in 
regard  to  fundamental  morality  and  the  great  duties  of  life, 
which  we  agree  with  Mr.  Mann  in  regarding  as  of  the  very 
first  importance,  there  is  absolute  agreement.  All  Protestant 
sects  profess  to  believe  that  man's  great  duty  is  to  "  do  justly, 
to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  his  God  " — that  the 
sum  of  all  duty  is  to  love  the  Lord  with  all  the  heart,  and 
our  neighbor  as  ourselves.  Hence  our  former  remark  remains 
substantially  true,  that  "  Supposing  there  are  fifty  different 
Protestant  sects,  instead  of  forty-nine  of  them  being  wrong, 
to  any  important  extent,  the  whole  fifty  may  be  essentially 
right."  Now  we  submit  that  to  base  an  argument  against  the 
sects  on  alleged  differences  between  them  which  do  not  exist 
in  fact,  is  virtually  to  "  luagnify  "  those  differences,  though 
we  doubt  not  such  a  purpose  was  entirely  foreign  to  Mr. 
Mann's  intentions.  The  practice  of  these  sects  on  some  of 
the  great  moral  questions  of  the  day  we  do  not  defend ;  and 


162  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

when  Mr.  Mann  shall  employ  his  almost  unrivaled  powers  of 
wit,  argument,  and  eloquence,  in  exposing  and  denouncing 
their  practical  inconsistencies,  no  one  will  shout  a  heartier 
amen  than  we.  But  the  source  of  these  practical  wrongs  is 
not  in  their  creeds,  for  they  are  perpetrated  in  violation  of 
their  teachings. 

But  admitting,  for  the  argument,  that  there  are  grave  and 
important  diiferenees  between  the  Protestant  sects,  the  next 
question  is,  do  they  teach  these  discordant  views  generally, 
or  even  extensively,  in  their  literary  institutions?  A  man's 
opinions  on  such  questions  are  governed  by  his  knowledge  of 
facts,  and  from  our  knowledge  of  facts,  we  should  answer  this 
question  emphatically  in  the  negative.  We  spent  five  years 
as  pupil  in  an  institution  wholly  under  Presbyterian  control, 
and  we  do  nat  now  remember  to  have  heard  the  theoretical 
difierences  between  Presbyterians  and  others  once  alluded  to. 
We  are  very  certain  that  no  systematic  effort  was  made  to 
teach  them.  We  spent  nearly  five  years  more  as  teacher  in 
another  institution  under  the  same  control,  and  of  it  the  same 
statement  is  true.  Nothing  was  taught  on  the  subject  of 
religion  but  its  great  principles,  on  which  all  Christians 
agree.  So  far  as  we  have  learned  the  practice  of  other  liter- 
ary institutions,  under  the  care  of  different  sects,  the  same 
thing  is  true  of  them.  Mr.  Mann's  acquaintance  with  insti- 
tutions of  learning  is,  doubtless,  far  more  extensive  than 
ours,  and  we  of  course  do  not  deny  that  he  may  know  of  dif- 
ferent practice  in  some  sectarian  schools. 

But  admitting  both  these  supposed  facts — that  there  are 
great  differences  of  doctrine  among  these  sects,  and  that  they 
teach  their  distinctive  doctrines  generally  in  their  colleges, — 
and  they  may  still  be  justified,  provided  they  teach  them 
fairly  and  impartially,  and  do  full  justice  to  the  views  of  those 
who  differ  from  them. 

This  brings  us  to  the  second  point  in  dispute.  An  addition 
of  two  words  to  our  statement,  that  a  college  controlled  by  a 
sect  "  must  teach  in  religion  what  they  themselves  believe, 
what  somebody  else  believes,  or  teach  no  religion  at  all," 
would  more  fully  express  our  meaning.  The  sentence  as 
amended  would  read,  that  a  college  under  the  control  of  a 
particular  denomination  "  must  teach  for  truth  what  they 
themselves  believe,  or  what  somebody  else  believes,"  etc.,  and 
with  this  qualification  we  think  these  "  three  methods  "  do 
"  exhaust  the  subject."  We  would  respectfully  ask  Mr.  Mann 
"hethor,  when  he  teaches  his  students  a  religious  doctrine 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORIWN.  163 

which  he  wishes  them  to  receive  as  truth,  he  does  not  teach  it 
solely  because  he  himself  believes  it  to  be  true,  and  not 
because  some  other  great  man  so  believes  ?  and  whether,  if 
all  the  other  great  men  in  creation  received  a  dogma  as  true 
which  he  believed  to  be  false,  he  would  teach  it  for  truth  to 
his  students  on  the  ground  of  their  faith?  If  he  answers  the 
first  of  these  questions  in  the  aflfirmative  and  the  second  in 
the  negative,  then  does  he  not  teach  for  truth  "  what  he  him- 
self believes,  and  not  the  notions  of  somebody  else?  " 

We  agree  with  the  eloquent  President  as  to  the  mode  in 
which  controverted  points  in  religion  should  be  taught.  But 
his  remarks  on  this  subject  only  confirm  our  position,  for  this 
impartial  method  is  the  only  one  by  which  any  views  can  be 
thoroughtly  taught.  A  student  is  but  half  instructed  in  a 
disputed  dogma  when  he  has  been  taught  only  the  arguments 
for  its  truth.  He  must  likewise  be  taught  the  objections  to 
its  truth,  and  the  mode  of  answering  those  objections.  If  we 
desired  to  impress  what  we  knew  to  be  an  error  on  the  minds 
of  others,  we  would  try  to  state,  with  at  least  the  appearance 
of  candor,  the  objections  to  it;  much  more  if  we  wished  to 
teach  what  we  believed  to  be  a  truth.  Candor  and  impar- 
tiality in  a  teacher  are  the  surest  means  of  gaining  a  lodg- 
ment for  his  own  views  in  the  minds  of  his  pupils.  But  this 
impartiality  may  be  carried  too  ftir.  When  it  reaches  the 
point  of  neutrality  it  becomes  in  the  highest  degree  pernicious. 
If  an  important  controverted  point  is  so  presented  as  to 
create  the  impression  on  the  minds  of  a  class  that  the  subject 
is  involved  in  great  uncertainty,  that  much  can  be  said  plaus- 
ibly on  both  sides,  that  definite  and  truthful  views  on  the 
point  are  hardly  attainable,  and  that  it  is  not  very  important 
which  side  of  the  question  they  adopt,  thus  leaving  them,  with 
their  comparatively  undisciplined  fiiculties,  as  likely  to  adopt 
wrong  as  right  views,  we  can  only  ejaculate,  in  the  language 
of  the  litany,  "from  such  teaching,  good  Lord,  deliver  us." 

Mr.  Mann  will  probable  agree  with  us,  that  a  religious 
teacher  ought  to  have  fixed  and  well-defined  views  on  all  the 
important  doctrines  of  religion,  controverted  or  not  contro- 
verted (we  admit  the  existence  of  radical  differences  between 
many  nominal  Christian  sects,  although  we  deny  their  exist- 
ence as  between  one  class  of  the  sects)  ;  that  these  views  ought 
to  be  the  result  of  the  most  thorough  and  impartial  investi- 
gation, and  that  he  ought  to  believe  them  with  his  whole 
strength  of  conviction.  Now  a  religious  teacher  holding  thus 
opinions  which  he  is  fully  convinced  are  true,  and  knowing 


164  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

tliat  truth  is  infinitely  important  to  his  pupils,  mtist  earnestly 
desire  that  they  should  adopt  his  views,  not  because  they  are 
his,  but  because  in  his  judgment  they  are  true;  and  thus 
desiring,  we  do  not  see  how  he  can  honestly  do  otherwise  than 
seek  to  impress  his  own  opinions  on  the  minds  of  his  scholars. 
But  a  teacher  who  thus  acts  teaches  what  "  he  himself  believes 
to  be  true,  and  not  the  notions  of  somebody  else."  He  will, 
of  course,  if  honest  and  impartial,  present  fairly  the  objec- 
tions to  the  truth  of  his  own  views,  will  admit  that  he  may 
possibly  be  wrong,  will  gladly  receive  new  light  from  all 
sources,  and  when  convinced  that  his  opinions  are  erroneous, 
will  modify  or  change  them.  But  so  long  as  he  believes  them 
to  be  true,  and  consequently  of  infinite  importance  to  all  men, 
he  must,  as  an  honest  man,  seek  to  instill  them  into  the  minds 
of  others.  Mr.  Mann  will  thus  see  that,  as  our  method  of 
teaching  controverted  points  is  the  same  as  his,  our  "  disci- 
ples "  would  be  no  more  "half-taught  and  one-sided"  than 
his  own,  nor  would  our  "vitals,"  perchance,  be  in  anymore 
danger  of  perforation  by  the  Ithuriel  spear  than  his. 

The  analogy  between  the  position  of  a  judge  and  of  a  relig- 
ious teacher  fails  in  important  particulars.  An  honest  judge 
has  no  personal  interest  in  the  issue  of  the  cases  brought  be- 
fore him  for  trial,  but  the  religious  teacher  has  the  same  deep 
personal  interest  as  his  pupils  in  the  right  decision  of  the 
questions  with  which  he  has  to  do.  He  therefore  combines 
the  functions  of  judge  and  juror.  Again,  a  jury  are  pre- 
sumed to  have  minds  sufiiciently  disciplined  to  form  right  de- 
cisions, if  the  law  and  the  facts  are  fairly  laid  before  them. 
But  a  class  of  youth  are  in  process  of  discipline,  and  there- 
fore need  more  careful  and  fuller  instruction  than  a  jury. 
But  taking  the  illustration  as  employed  by  Mr.  Mann,  and  it 
seems  to  us  to  confirm  our  view  of  the  matter.  The  great  aim 
of  an  honest  judge  will  be  to  administer  exact  justice  in  all 
cases.  That  this  may  be  done  he  knows  that  correct  views  of 
the  law  and  the  facts  must  be  adopted  by  the  jury.  To  arrive 
at  such  views  himself  he  will  investigate  each  case  with  all 
possible  fairness  and  thoroughness.  But,  having  thus  inves- 
tigated the  case,  and  formed  his  opinion,  and  fully  believing 
that  opinion  to  be  the  true  one,  he  must  desire  that  the  jury 
should  adopt  the  same.  Now  we  hold  that  it  is  neither  pos- 
sible nor  desirable  for  a  judge  in  such  a  case  to  so  charge  the 
jury  as  to  lead  them  to  believe  that  he  "  has  no  opinion  in  the 
case."  The  man  who  is  so  vciy  impartial  between  truth  and 
error,  justice  and  injustice,  as  to  argue  with  equal  force  and 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  165 

earnestness  in  behalf  of  each,  is  just  the  man  whom  we  would 
not  wish  to  sit  in  judgment  on  us  in  court,  or  instruct  our 
child  in  religion.  A  profound  conviction  of  the  vast  import- 
ance of  truth  to  his  pupils  will  lend  a  force,  depth,  earnest- 
ness and  power  to  a  teacher's  reasonings  in  behalf  of  truth, 
which  he  can  not,  and  ought  not,  to  bring  to  the  defense  of 
error. 

In  view  of  what  has  been  said  we  can  not  possibly  see  how 
instructing  youth  in  religion,  according  to  this  impartial 
method,  even  when  the  teacher  has  deep  personal  convictions 
and  labors  to  impress  them  on  his  students,  can  unfit  their 
minds  for  the  "  discovery  of  truth,"  as  Mr.  Mann  assumes  it 
does.  On  the  contrary,  it  seems  to  us  that  its  effect  would  be 
to  create  such  a  conviction  of  the  importance  of  truth  as  to 
form  a  good  guaranty  of  the  success  of  the  young  in  its 
pursuit. 

We  join  with  our  highly-esteemed  friend  in  deploring  the 
divisions  of  the  Christian  world ;  and  agree  with  him  that 
those  divisions  are  the  result  of  prejudice  and  pride  of  heart 
and  opinion.  When  we  can  all  lay  these  aside,  and  come  to 
the  study  of  truth  with  the  docile  spirit  of  little  children, 
these  divisions  will  soon  cease.  If  Christians  could  enter  into 
discussion  with  each  other,  feeling  that  if  they  are  convinced 
of  the  falsity  of  their  present  views,  they  will  come  out  of  the 
friendly  contest,  not  disgraced  and  humble  captives  to  grace 
the  chariot-wheels  of  an  opponent's  triumph,  but  glorious  vic- 
tors over  their  own  past  errors,  the  unity  among  his  followers 
for  which  Jesus  prayed  would  not  be  remote.  We  join  with 
all  who  love  the  Saviour  in  devout  prayer  that  we  may  all 
come  soon  to  such  a  mind  as  this. 


Imprisonment  of  W.  L.  Chaplin. 

The  National  Era  is  out  in  condemnation  of  Mr.  Chaplin 
formerly  editor  of  the  Albany  Patriot,  for  assisting  the  escape 
of  the  slaves  of  Messrs.  Toombs  and  Stephens  from  Wash- 
ington City,  for  which  he  was  arrested  and  imprisoned.  We 
have  no  heart  to  join  in  this  censure.  The  slaveholder  is  sim- 
ply a  pirate,  holding  by  a  thief's  title,  his  fellow-man  in  bon- 
dage, who  has  precisely  the  same  right  to  be  free  as  himself. 
This  being  the  case,  it  is  not  only  the  right,  but  the  duty  of 
the  slave  to  get  free  whenever  he  can  by  lawful  means.  The 
only  lawful  means  in  his  power  is  to  run  away.     It  is,  there- 


166  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

fore,  his  right  and  duty,  whenever  a  chance  of  escape  is  pre- 
sented, to  embrace  it.  If  it  be  right  for  him  to  make  his 
escape,  it  is  of  necessity  right  to  assist  him.  Therefore,  the 
act  of  Mr.  Chaplin,  for  which  he  has  been  arrested  and  com- 
mitted to  prison,  was,  we  honestly  believe,  pleasing  in  the 
sight  of  God. 

The  Era  quotes,  in  condemnation  of  this  act,  from  an  arti- 
cle written  by  the  editor,  in  Cincinnati,  commencing  thus: 
"  The  human  mind  is  so  constituted,  that  it  will  attach  some- 
thing dishonorable  to  that  which  has  to  be  done  in  the  dark, 
or  by  stratagem." 

On  this  principle  the  editor  would  condemn  the  primitive 
Christians,  who  assembled  "  in  the  dark,"  in  the  "  caves  and 
dens  of  the  earth,"  to  worship  their  Saviour.  He  would  con- 
demn the  Waldenses  and  Albigenses  of  France,  the  Covenant- 
ers of  Scotland,  and  the  Puritans  of  England,  whose  only 
"freedom  to  worship  God  "  was  obtained  by  meeting  "in  the 
dark  and  by  stratagem  ?  "  Would  it  be  "  dishonorable  "  for 
a  man  taken  captive  by  Algerine  pirates  to  escape  "•  in  the 
dark  or  by  stratagem  ?"  Then  why  is  it  wrong  for  the  cap- 
tives of  Toombs  and  Stephens,  and  other  Congressional  pirates, 
to  do  the  same  thing  ?  Was  it  "  dishonorable  "  for  the  persons 
taken  prisoners  by  the  Indians,  during  the  first  settlement  of 
this  country,  to  avail  themselves  of  "  stratagem  and  darkness"  to 
escape?  Yet  slavery  is  more  intolerable  than  Indian  captivity  ; 
for  who  does  not  know  that  one  object  of  the  Seminole  and 
Florida  Wars  was  to  recover  the  slaves  who  had  escaped  from 
the  "tender  mercies  "  of  Christian  civilized  slavery  to  the  "hor- 
rors of  life  in  the  wigwam  ?  "  We  fancy  that  if  Dr.  Bailey's 
wife  and  children  were  reduced  to  slavery,  and  he  had  a  chance 
to  recover  them  "  in  the  dark  or  by  stratagem,"  his  scruples 
would  vanish  marvelously  soon.  If  Mr.  Chaplin  shall  be 
doomed  to  follow  the  lamented  Torrey,  it  will  be  for  an  act 
on  which  we  have  no  doubt  Jesus  and  angels  smile  with 
approbation. 


Can  Crime  be  Legaliked  ? 

The  National  Era  takes  the  affirmative  of  this  question. 
In  some  comments  on  the  proceedings  of  the  Illinois  Conven- 
tion, these  sentences  occur:  "A  legal  relation  is  one  which 
the  law  allows,  creates  or  protects."  Again  :  "  The  legality/  of 
a  relation  is  one  thing — its  morality  another.     It  is  legal  if  it 


REV.   JOSEPH    GORDON.  '    167 

is  established  by  the  law-making  power  of  the  State,  acting 
under  the  Constitution  which  prescribes  its  extent  and  limita- 
tion." 

We  demur  to  the  above  sentiment.  The  proper  meaning  of 
the  term  law,  as  applied  to  intelligent  beings,  is  a  ride  of  duty. 
That  which  is  immoral  is  never  duty,  and,  therefore,  can  never 
become  law  in  the  true  sense  of  that  term.  It  is  not,  of  course, 
our  intention  to  deny  that  men  may  pass  enactments  which 
"  allow,  create  or  protect "  crime.  But  are  those  enactments, 
laws  ?  Do  they  impose  the  duty  of  obedience  ?  Does  it 
require  a  person  to  obey  such  enactments,  to  earn  the  charac- 
ter of  a  law-abiding  citizen  ?  For  illustration,  suppose  Con- 
gress should  pass  a  bill  offering  one  thousand  dollars  for  the 
scalp  of  every  Indian,  belonging  to  any  of  the  peaceable  tribes 
in  this  country,  and  should  "  command  all  good  citizens  "  to 
shoot  down  and  scalp  unoffending  Indians,  wherever  they  had 
the  opportunity.  Would  such  an  enactment  be  legal?  Cer- 
tainly not.  But  it  will  be  said  such  a  bill  would  be  a  viola- 
tion of  the  Constitution,  and,  therefore^  illegal.  Exactly  so. 
But  why  does  this  make  it  illegal  ?  Because  the  Constitution 
is  aJiove  the  laios  passed  under  it,  and  whatever  violates  the 
Constitution  is  illegal.  This  is  precisely  our  position,  and 
because  we  recognize  (as  everybody  else  except  an  atheist 
does)  a  code  of  laws  above  all  human  Constitutions,  we  con- 
clude that  whatever  violates  that  higher  code  is  illegal.  A 
Constitution  which  "  allows,  creates  or  protects  "  that  which 
violates  the  higher  law,  is  itself  null  and  void.  It  has  pro- 
perly neither  legal  nor  moral  force. 

The  highest  Constitution  in  the  universe  is  that  which 
obliges  men  to  do  right.  The  law  of  justice,  of  equity,  of 
eternal  righteousness,  or  in  other  words,  the  law  of  God  is 
first  and  supreme.  Next  to  that  are  the  Constitutions  which 
nations  adopt  for  themselves  ;  and  next  to  these  Constitutions 
are  the  laws  passed  by  the  proper  authorities  under  them. 
There  is  in  all  a  just  and  beautiful  gradation.  Now,  as  enact- 
ments, passed  under  human  Constitutions,  which  violate  these 
Constitutions,  are  null  and  void,  and  illegal  because  of  this 
violation,  so  requirements  framed  into  these  same  human  Con- 
stitutions, which  violate  that  which  is  above  them,  are  void 
also,  and  for  the  same  reason. 

All  ethical  and  legal  writers  of  any  authority,  so  far  as  we 
know,  lay  down  certain  qualities  as  essential  to  constitute  an 
enactment  a  law.  One  of  these  is  that  they  be  passed  by  a 
competent   law-making  power ;   another  is  that  they  do  not 


168  LITE  AND  \niITINGS  OF 

violate  the  eternal  jyrLnciples  of  right  and  justice.  Now,  if  an 
enactment  declaring  one  human  being  the  property  of  another, 
is  not  a  violation  of  the  eternal  principles  of  right  and  jus- 
tice, no  such  violation  is  possible.  Yet  the  Era  holds  that 
these  enactments  are  laws,  that  the  property  relation  is  really 
a  legal  relation.  The  doctrine  of  this  paper  is,  therefore,  iden- 
tical with  the  famous  (or  rather  the  i?ifamous)  dogma  of 
Henry  Clay,  "  That  is  property  which  the  law  makes  prop- 
erty." Of  course,  then,  if  the  law  declares  the  wife  and  chil- 
dren of  the  editor  of  the  Era  property,  they  are  legally  such. 
"VVe  are  greatly  mistaken  if  there  is  a  freeman  on  earth,  who 
would  not  think  such  an  enactment  as  destitute  of  all  legal, 
to  say  nothing  of  moral  force,  as  any  of  the  worst  regulations 
of  a  gang  of  Algerine  pirates. 

We  hold  that  all  enactments,  passed  by  any  of  the  States 
of  this  confederacy,  which  allow  one  man  to  hold  another 
innocent  man  as  property,  are  in  violation,  not  only  of  the 
law  of  God,  but  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 
The  great  object  of  the  Constitution,  as  set  forth  by  that 
instrument  itself,  is  to  "  establish  justice  and  secure  the  bles- 
sings of  liberty;  "  and  if  enactments  which  establish  injustice 
and  deprive  men  of  the  blessings  of  freedom,  are  not  violations 
of  the  Constitution,  how  are  such  violations  possible  ?  If 
that  which  wars  upon  THE  object  which  the  Constitution  was 
made  to  promote,  does  not  war  upon  the  Constitution  itself, 
we  confess  our  inability  to  see  how  anything  can  conflict 
with  that  instrument. 

There  are  other  sentiments  in  the  Era's  strictures  on  the 
Illinois  Convention  which  we  think  erroneous.  It  is  not  our 
special  vocation  to  defend  the  sayings  and  doings  of  that  Con- 
vention. The  men  who  composed  it  are  abundantly  compe- 
tent to  vindicate  their  own  positions.  But  the  sentiment  to 
which  we  have  especially  referred  in  this  article,  is  general  in 
its  bearings ;  and  we  are  sorry  to  see  the  Era  using  its  great 
influence  to  give  currency  to  doctrines  which  we  think  false 
in  themselves,  and  of  mischievous  tendency. 


Can  Crime  be  Leqalized? 

The  National  Era  responds  to  our  notice  of  his  position  on 
this  question  as  follows  : 

"  The  Free  Presbyterian  is  rather  anxious  we  fear,  to  disa- 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  169 

gree  with  the  Era  The  difference  between  us  is  one  of 
definition,  not  jyrinciple.  We  agree  with  the  Free  Presbyterian, 
that  no  human  enactment  can  justify  a  relation,  or  impose  an 
obligation  upon  an  intelligent  being  to  do  an  act,  which  the 
law  of  nature  or  revelation  forbids.  In  common  with  the 
editors  of  that  paper,  and  with  every  man  who  believes  in  the 
existence  of  a  God,  we  acknowledge  the  absolute  supremacy 
of  the  divine  law.  In  principle  we  agree.  Wherein,  then, 
lies  the  difference  between  us?  In  definition — nothing  more. 
The  Free  Preshyterian  defines  law  to  be,  a  right  rule  of  con- 
duct:  one  of  the  essential  elements  of  law,  in  its  judgment, 
is,  its  harmony  toith  justice.  It  follows  from  this,  that  the 
phrases  —  ^had  laws,^  '■loicked  laws,'  ^tyrannical  laws,' 
'  cruel  laws,'  are  all  misnomers :  there  can  be  no  such  laws. 
A  '  bad  law '  is  no  law  at  all.  No  enactment  is  law  which 
commands,  sanctions,  or  allows  anything  wrong, 

"  Need  we  say  that  this  definition  is  not  warranted  by  the 
etymology  of  the  word  '  law,'  not  supported  by  authority, 
not  in  conformity  with  popular  ideas  or  modes  of  expression? 

"The  word  is  derived  from  a  Saxon  root,  meaning  ^laid, 
set,  or  fixed,'  and  means  simply  a  rule  of  conduct — not  of 
duty,  as  the  Free  Presbyterian  has  it.  Human  law  is  a  rule 
of  conduct  prescribed  by  the  supreme  power  of  the  State  ; 
Divine  law,  a  rule  of  conduct  prescribed  by  the  Creator.  The 
latter  can  never  be  otherwise  than  just  and  good,  because  its 
Author  is  always  just  and  good.  The  former  may  be  short- 
sighted, absurd,  or  unjust,  bearing  the  stamp  of  its  fallible 
or  corrupt  author. 

"  Human  laws  may  be  right  or  wrong,  humane  or  barba- 
rous— allowing  in  one  country  what  they  forbid  in  another, 
prohibiting  to-day  what  yesterday  they  legalized." 

Again,  the  Era  says  ; 

"  The  Free  Presbyterian  says  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Era 
is  '  identical  with  the  famous  (or  rather  infjimous)  dogma, — 
"  That  is  property  which  the  law  makes  property."  '  The 
dogma  is  true — and  the  offense  of  Mr.  Clay  was,  not  in  giv- 
ing utterance  to  it,  but  in  vsing  it  as  a  reason  to  justify  slavery 
— for,  he  added,  '  two  hundred  years  of  legislation  has  sanc- 
tioned and  sanctified  negro  slaves  as  property.'  Two  hundred 
thousand  years  of  legislation  can  not  sanction  and  sanctify  a 
wrong.  The  law  in  the  free  States  makes  the  soil  and  its 
products,  capital,  and  the  productions  of  capital  and  labor, 
property — and  in  the  slave  States  it  makes  men,  women,  and 
children,  property.  This  is  a  fact ;  and  it  is  because  it  is  true, 
15 


170  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS  OF 

that  what  the  law  makes  property  is  property,  that  we  so 
utterly  detest  the  system  of  slavery.  Our  heaviest  charge 
against  that  system  is.  that  it  takes  man,  who  was  created  a 
little  lower  than  the  angels,  and  to  whom  was  given  dominion 
over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  the  beasts 
of  the  field ;  drags  him  down  to  their  level,  and  makes  him 
property  in  the  same  sense  that  they  are  made  property. 
This  is  the  very  element  which  makes  slavery  the  monster 
crime  against  humanity — dishonoring  human  nature  and 
insulting  its  Creator." 

We  are  not  "  anxious  to  disagree  with  the  Era,^'  but 
happy  to  coincide  in  the  main  with  that  excellent  paper.  We 
rejoice  in  the  Era\  prosperity,  and  had  we  the  power  it  would 
afford  us  unmixed  pleasure  to  multiply  that  prosperity  a 
hundred  fold.  We  have  dissented  publicly  from  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Ura  twice,  in  about  eight  months — once  in  the 
case  of  Chaplin,  and  again  in  the  present  instance.  This 
does  not  appear  to  us  often  enough  to  justify  the  "fear"  of  the 
editor  that  we  "  are  anxious  "  for  such  disagreement.  But  to 
the  point  at  issue. 

The  Era  thinks  the  difference  is  merely  one  of  definition. 
There  is,  of  course,  no  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  fact, 
that  many  wicked  enactments  exist  in  the  world,  which  are 
regarded  as  laws.  All  the  wrongs  specified  by  the  Era,  and 
many  more,  have  a  legislative  sanction  in  different  States. 
But  are  the  enactments  which  create,  allow,  or  protect  these 
wrongs,  properly  laws  ?  We  still  think  not.  The  Era  says, 
a  law  is  a  rule  of  conduct,  not  of  duty.  But  does  not  all 
legislation  proceed  on  the  assumption,  that  the  conduct  of  the 
citizen  shall  be  coincident  with  his  duty?  Does  the  law 
make  any  provision  for  the  perpetration  of  acknowledged 
wrong?  Is  not  obedience  to  the  very  worst  enactments — the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  for  instance — urged  on  the  ground  of 
duty  ?  This  shows  the  universal  conviction,  that  law  and 
justice  ought  to  be  one — that  duty  and  conduct  ought  to  coin- 
cide. If,  then,  a  legislature  enact,  as  a  rule  of  conduct,  what 
is  not  a  rule  of  duty,  its  enactment  lacks  the  essential  attri- 
bute of  law. 

The  main  question  is,  Has  law,  or  has  it  not,  moral  char- 
acter? The  Era  makes  it  a  moral  nondescript,  having  all 
characters,  and  no  character,  and  opposite  elements  of  charac- 
ter, at  once.  If  his  idea  of  law  is  correct,  then  it  seems  to  us 
quite  as  desirable  to  cultivate  lawless  as  law-abiding  sentiments 
among  the  people.     If  "  a  bad  law  "  has  all  the  legal  force  of  a 


REV.  JOSEPH  GORDON.  171 

good  law,  then  the  people  ought  to  be  taught  that  it  may  be 
their  duty  to  disobey,  quite  as  often  as  to  obey  human  laws. 
According  to  the  Era's  doctrine,  ANY  enactment  which  a  com- 
petent law-making  power  may  choose  to  pass,  is  in  the  proper 
sense  of  the  term  a  law.  Now  there  are  surely  some  things 
which  would  not  be  law  if  enacted  by  all  the  law-making 
powers  in  the  world.  We  adduced  an  example  or  two  in  our 
former  article ;  they  might  be  multiplied  indefinitely.  An 
enactment  commanding  murder,  is  the  example  given  by 
Blackstone,  and  he  declares  such  an  enactment  has  no  legal 
force. 

But  we  are  no  lawyer,  and  perhaps  have  no  right  to  express 
an  opinion  on  this  subject.  We  are,  however,  only  reiterat- 
ing principles  taught  by  the  masters  of  jurisprudence.  Let 
us  look  then  at  some  of  the  authorities. 

"  Law  is  an  inteUiglhle  jprincipJe  of  right,  necessarily  result- 
ing from  the  nature  of  man  ;  and  not  an  arbitrary  rule,  that 
can  be  established  by  mere  will,  numbers  or  power." — Spooner. 

"  Jurisprudence  is  the  science  of  what  is  just  and  unjust." 
— -Justinian. 

"  The  precepts  of  the  laio  are  to  live  honestly  ;  to  hurt  no 
one ;  to  give  to  every  one  his  due." — Justinian  and  Black- 
stone. 

"  All  laws  derive  their  force  from  the  law  of  nature  ;  and 
those  which  do  not  are  accounted  no  laivs.^' — Fortcscne.  Jacobs^ 
Law  Dictionary. 

"  Law.  The  rule  and  bond  of  men's  actions  ;  or  it  is  a  rule 
for  the  well  government  of  civil  society,  to  give  to  every  man 
that  which  doth  belong  to  him." — Jacobs'  Law  Dictionary. 

"  Of  law  no  less  can  be  acknowledged,  than  that  her  seat 
is  the  bosom  of  God,  her  voice  the  harmony  of  the  world. 
All  things  in  heaven  and  earth  do  her  homage ;  the  least  as 
feeling  her  care,  and  the  greatest  as  not  exempted  from  her 
power." — Hooker. 

"  Lawful :  Agreeable  to  law ;  conformable  to  law  ;  legal ; 
Zc^iVi'ma^e ;  constituted  bylaw;  riglitfidJ' — Webster. 

"Jurisprudence:  The  science  of  law  ;  the  knowledge  of  the 
laws,  customs,  and  rights  of  men  in  a  State  or  community, 
necessary  for  the  due  administration  of  justice.'" — lb. 

For  most  of  these  references  we  are  indebted  to  Spooner 
on  the  Unconstitutionality  of  Slavery,  where  others  are  given 
of  the  same  import.  In  view  of  them  what  becomes  of  the 
Eras  declaration,  that  our  definition  is  "  not  supported  by 
authority"? 


172  LIFE    AND    WRITINGS    OF 

We  are  surprised  that  the  Era  should  assert  the  truth  of 
the  dogma,  "  That  is  property  which  the  law  makes  property." 
That  is  property  which  (jrod  made  to  be  the  proper  subject  of 
property,  and  that  is  my  property  of  which  I  have  obtained 
honest  possession.  If  I  steal  a  horse  all  the  enactments  of 
all  the  governments  of  the  earth  can  not  make  him  my  prop- 
erty, because  he  belongs  to  another.  The  right  of  self-own- 
ership is  the  inalienable  right  of  every  human  being.  Every 
man  properly  owns  himself,  and  hence  can  never  be  made  the 
property  of  another.  The  man  who  claims  and  uses  him  as 
such  is  a  thief;  the  so-called  laws  which  uphold  him  in  the 
act,  are  the  most  lawless  outrages  possible.  The  regulations 
of  a  banditti,  or  a  gang  of  pirates,  by  which  their  prey  is 
divided  are  just  laws  as  much  as  these. 

The  practical  tendency  of  this  popular  notion  of  law  is 
most  pernicious.  Reverence  for  law  is  deeply  instilled  into 
the  minds  of  American  citizens.  They  are  taught  to  regard 
it  as  sacred;  hence,  when  any  enactment,  no  matter  how  atro- 
cious, is  passed,  the  people  are  taught  that  it  is  law,  and  the 
reverence  they  feel  for  law  is  at  once  appealed  to,  and  enlisted 
in  its  support.  The  man  is  blind  who  does  not  see  that  it  is 
through  this  principle  that  profligate  politicians  and  apostate 
doctors  of  divinity  are  now  leading  the  people  to  acquiesce  in 
and  obey  the  infamous  Fugitive  Slave  Bill.  The  remedy  is 
to  teach  the  people  the  true  nature  of  law — that  justice  is  its 
essential  element;  and  that  lacking  this  it  lacks  that  which  is 
indispensably  necessary  to  make  it  law. 


Proscription. 

It  is  stated  in  the  papers  that  the  National  Era  has  lost 
seven  thousand  subscribers  through  the  influence  of  the 
Know-Nothings.  The  Era  has  never  shown  any  friendship 
for  the  Free  Frenhi/krian,  and,  so  far  as  possible,  has  ignored 
our  very  existence.  It  will  not  exchange  with  us,  and  hence 
we  know  of  its  condition  only  from  statements  we  see  in  other 
papers.  But  these  facts  shall  not  prevent  us  from  bearing 
our  testimony  to  the  fidelity  of  the  Era  to  the  great  cause  of 
freedom,  and  against  the  proscription  that  is  crippling  its  cir- 
culation and  endangering  its  existence.  The  position  of  the 
Era  at  the  seat  of  the  National  Government,  the  very  center 
and  focus  of  the  slave  power,  gives  it  an  incalculable  import- 


REV.  JOSEPH  GORDON.  173 

ance.  Hence  the  antislavery  people  of  the  country  have 
always  felt  that  one  of  their  fir&t  duties  was  to  give  it  an  am- 
ple support.  Then  the  ability  and  fidelity  with  which  it  has 
been  conducted  have  been  all,  in  the  main,  that  its  friends 
could  desire.  It  has  steadily  and  fearlessly  exposed  the 
schemes  of  the  propagandists,  and  from  time  to  time  has  lifted 
up  the  warning  cry,  as  a  faithful  sentinel  upon  the  watch- 
tower  of  freedom.  And  yet,  because  the  Era^  in  common 
with  the  vast  majority  of  the  true  and  tried  friends  of  free- 
dom, suspects  danger  to  the  cause  from  the  new  secret  order, 
and  has  faithfully  exposed  its  pro-slavery  tendencies,  thous- 
ands of  those  who  profess  to  regard  slavery  as  the  paramount 
issue  before  the  country  withdraw  their  support,  and  pursue 
a  course  to  endanger  the  very  existence  of  that  paper. 

This  secret  proscription  is  one  of  the  most  dangerous  and 
detestable  features  of  secret  associations.  Eound  by  solemn 
oath  to  the  strictest  secresy,  their  members  can  by  common 
concert  strike  down  whom  they  will,  and  yet  never  permit  the 
victim  to  see  the  hand  that  gives  the  blow.  Men  who  are  too 
honest  and  upright  to  seek  concealment  find  themselves  crip- 
pled in  their  business,  often  without  even  suspecting  the 
cause.  They  are  placed  under  the  ban  of  a  secret,  irrespon- 
sible order,  each  member  of  which  does  all  in  his  power  to 
ruin  them  in  their  calling  in  life,  while  these  very  members 
are  probably  themselves  receiving,  in  some  other  branch  of 
business,  the  support  of  the  men  they  are  trying  to  ruin. 
The  member  of  a  secret  society  has  this  double  advantage. 
He  is  sure  of  the  support  of  all  the  members  of  his  order, 
and  has  an  equal  chance  with  others,  to  secure  his  share  of 
the  patronage  of  the  rest  of  the  public.  Should  these  things 
continue  and  increase,  it  may  yet  drive  the  opponents  of 
secret  societies  into  an  open  combination  for  their  own 
defense.  Certainly  the  members  of  these  secret  conclaves 
■would  have  no  right  to  complain  if  the  cup  they  fill  for  others 
should  be  commended  to  their  own  lips.  An  open  league 
among  the  opposers  of  secret  societies,  to  patronize  none  but 
those  who  agreed  with  them  in  sentiment  on  this  subject, 
would  be  a  very  legitimate  fruit  of  the  secret  obligation  which 
the  members  of  secret  societies  take,  to  patronize  none  but 
those  of  their  own  order. 

We  trust  it  may  not,  through  necessity,  come  to  this.  Free 
and  fair  and  honorable  competition  is  the  right  law  of  trade. 
But  "  What  a  man  sows,  that  shall  he  also  reap." 

These  remarks  have  led  u»  away  from  the  subject  with 


174  LIFE    AND    WHITINGS    OF 

wliicli  Ave  started — the  condition  of  the  National  Era.  And 
yet  the  positions  we  have  been  stating  are  strikingly  illustrated 
by  the  proscription  of  that  paper  by  the  Know-Nothings. 
Dr.  Bailey  stands  where  he  has  stood  for  years,  on  the  broad 
platform  of  the  equality  of  men  in  rights.  The  so-called 
antislavery  Know-Nothings  have  left  that  platform  and 
adopted  another,  which  makes  man's  rights  depend  on  the 
place  of  his  birth — a  matter  over  which  he  had  no  control. 
The  order  is  also  developing,  in  most  of  the  States,  the  most 
thorough  pro-slavery  proclivities.  It  is  becoming  clear, 
almost  beyond  possibility  of  doubt,  that  Know-Nothingism  is 
but  the  ghost  of  Hunker-Whiggery,  trying  to  sneak  back  to 
life.  Yet  there  are  thousands  of  antislavery  men  in  the 
order  who  have  been  blinded  to  its  real  purposes.  And  these 
men,  regarding  the  slavery  question  as  the  one  great  over- 
shadowing question  of  the  country,  and  as  controlling  all 
other  questions,  can  yet  be  so  hoodwinked  by  their  connection 
with  a  secret  society  as  to  proscribe  and  try  to  destroy  one  of 
the  most  important  antislavery  agencies  in  the  country.  Can 
stronger  evidence  be  needed  of  the  dangerous  and  pernicious 
influence  of  secret  oath-bound  associations? 

The  Era  is  not  the  only  paper  that  has  suflFered  from  the 
same  cause.  The  Ohio  Columbian,  the  able  and  efficient  anti- 
slavery  organ  at  our  State  capital,  has  been  the  object  of  the 
same  unrighteous  proscription.  That  our  own  list  has  not 
suffered  in  the  same  way  is  owing,  we  presume,  entirely  to  the 
fact  that  we  have  probably  not  a  dozen  Know- Nothing  sub- 
scribers on  our  books. 

That  all  the  members  of  this  secret  order  sympathize  with 
its  intolerant  spirit  we  do  not  suppose.  Once  in  a  while  a 
man  can  be  found  in  their  ranks  with  magnanimity  enough 
to  tolerate  a  difference  of  opinion  on  a  few  points  while  there 
is  full  agreement  on  many  points.  But  such  magnanimity  is, 
we  fear,  exceedingly  rare  ;  and  the  direct  tendency  of  the 
influences  of  the  order  is  to  destroy  it. 


Is  THEBE  A  Law  for  the  Rendition  of  Fugitive  Slaves  ? 

We  take  the  negative  of  this  question.  We  deny  that 
there  is  either  moral  or  civil  law  binding  the  people  of  the 
free  States  to  aid  in  the  recapture  of  fugitive  slaves,  or  even 
to  permit   them   to  be  pursued  and  captured  on  their  soil. 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  175 

This  question  may  be  regarded  as  stale  and  unprofitable  by 
some,  but  the  outrages  upon  the  feelings  of  the  North  which 
slave-catchers  are  constantly  perpetrating,  force  the  question 
upon  us  as  one  of  the  highest  practical  import.  It  is,  after 
all  the  discussion  that  has  been  had  on  the  subject,  an  unset- 
tled question,  and  until  it  is  settled  the  country  can  enjoy  no 
real  quiet. 

So  far  from  God's  law  sanctioning  the  return  of  the  escaping 
slave,  it  forbids  it  in  express  terms.  "  Thou  shalt  not  return 
unto  his  master  the  servant  that  is  escaped  from  his  master 
unto  thee,"  is  the  explicit  mandate  of  Jehovah.  The  return 
of  the  fugitive  is  also  forbidden  by  direct  and  necessary 
implication  in  all  those  passages  which  command  to  show 
mercy  to  the  poor,  to  feed  the  hungry,  to  clothe  the  naked,  to 
hide  the  outcast,  etc.  A  more  direct,  flagrant,  impious  and 
diabolical  violation  of  God's  law  than  the  infamous  fugitive 
act  of  1850,  was  never  conceived  or  executed  by  man.  Every 
person  who  gives  the  least  aid  in  executing  this  act,  does  it  at 
the  peril  of  his  soul's  salvation.  It  is  a  sin  that  will  inevita- 
bly secure  his  eternal  damnation  unless  he  repents ;  and 
those  professed  ministers  of  the  gospel  who  defend  this  atro- 
cious enactment  will  be  doubly  damned  without  the  most 
deep  and  bitter  repentance. 

But  not  only  is  the  return  of  the  escaping  bondman  a 
violation  of  the  revealed  will  of  God,  but  also  of  the  law  of 
nature,  written  on  every  human  heart.  Heathen  nations  have 
always  held  the  right  of  hospitality  to  be  sacred.  It  is  con- 
sidered by  them  intensely  base  and  wicked  to  betray  the 
wanderer  who  takes  shelter  under  their  roof.  Even  his  bit- 
terest enemy  is  safe  if  he  breaks  bread  in  the  tent  of  an 
Arab.  This  is  not  the  only  instance  in  which  the  virtues  of 
heathenism  shame  the  crimes  of  nominal  Christendom. 

But  leaving  this  point,  we  inquire  is  there  civil  law  for  the 
rendition  of  fugitives  ?  We  deny  that  there  is,  for  the  three 
following  reasons : 

1.  All  civil  enactments  which  violate  God's  law,  are  null 
and  void. 

2.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  gives  Congress 
no  power  to  enact  such  a  law,  and  Congress  has  no  power  of 
legislation  except  what  is  conferred  by  the  Constitution. 

3.  If  there  had  been  a  Constitutional  compact  for  the  return 
of  fugitives,  the  repeated  and  habitual  violation  by  the  South 
of  other  provisions  of  the  Constitution,  have  freed  the  North 
from  all  moral  and  civil  obligation  to  keep  such  compact. 


176  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS  OF 

The  first  of  these  positions  is  distinctly  taught  by  all 
writers  on  civil  law  of  any  standing.  It  is,  moreover,  a  posi- 
tion which  none  but  a  downright  atheist  will  deny.  If 
there  be  a  God,  the  creator  and  upholder  of  all  things,  it  is 
not  only  his  right  but  (speaking  after  the  manner  of  men) 
his  duty  to  govern  the  universe  he  has  made.  None  but  an 
almighty  and  infinite  being  is  fit  to  rule  over  intelligent 
spirits.  Hence  he  only  can  rightfully  govern.  But  his  law 
must  be  supreme  and  above  all  other  laws,  or  his  power  is  not 
absolute  and  his  right  to  rule  is  a  farce.  It  follows  from  this 
that  those  professed  ministers  of  the  gospel  who  teach  that 
human  enactments,  like  the  fugitive  bill,  which  contravene 
God's  law,  shall    be  obeyed,  are  the  worst  practical  atheists. 

Our  second  position  is  that  the  Constitution  invests  Con- 
gress with  no  power  to  pass  a  statute  for  the  recovery  of 
fugitive  slaves.  The  article  of  the  Constitution  claimed  as 
conferring  such  power,  refers  to  persons  owing  service  or 
labor  in  certain  States  by  the  laws  of  those  States.  But 
according  to  the  so-called  laws  of  the  Southern  States,  the 
slave  is  a  chattel,  and  not  a  person  held  to  service  by  law. 
The  slave  is  held  to  labor  by  brute  force,  not  by  law.  Legal 
obligation  to  labor  is  always  based  on  the  assumption  that  an 
adequate  compensation  is  paid  to  the  laborer.  But  the  very 
essence  of  slavery  consists  in  making  the  slave  property,  and 
forcing  him  to  labor  without  wages.  Eminent  Southern 
statesmen  deny  that  there  is  any  law  in  the  Southern  States 
establishing  the  relation  of  master  and  slave.  The  govern- 
ment of  those  States  found  the  slave  in  the  hands  of  his 
captor,  and  merely  interposed  to  regulate  the  relation.  The 
slaves  are  held  to  labor  precisely  as  the  captives  on  a  pirate 
ship  are  held  to  labor ;  and  it  is  an  abuse  of  the  holy  terra 
laio  to  apply  it  to  any  enactments  made  either  to  establish  or 
to  regulate  this  piratical  robbery. 

Again,  the  so-called  fugitive  clause  of  the  Constitution 
speaks  of  service  and  labor  as  due  from  one  person  to 
another.  But  is  any  thing  dne  to  the  man-thief  from  his 
victim  ?  Nothing,  unless  it  be  cold  lead  or  a  halter.  The 
law  of  God  pronounces  the  man-thief  worthy  of  death,  and  it 
would  be  passing  strange  if  an  innocent  man  could  owe  life- 
long service  to  a  culprit  condemned  to  die.  He  who  forfeits 
his  right  to  life,  forfeits  his  right  to  every  thing  else,  and,  of 
course,  to  all  claim  of  service  or  labor  from  his  fellow-man. 

But,  finally,  admitting  the  existence  of  a  Constitutional 
compact  for  the  rendition  of  fugitives,  and  we  claim  that  the 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  177 

South,  by  its  habitual  violation  of  other  parts  of  the  com- 
pact, has  released  the  North  from  all  obligation  of  whatever 
character,  to  keep  it.  A  compact  or  bargain  always  implies 
two  parties  and  mutual  obligation.  It  is  an  undisputed  doc- 
trine, both  in  law  and  morals,  that  when  one  party  violates 
any  part  of  the  bargain,  the  other  is  legally  and  morally  free. 
Now,  the  slaveholding  States  have  habitually  and  persistently 
trampled  down  the  plainest  provisions  of  the  national  com- 
pact, and  have  violated  every  act  of  Congress  passed  under 
the  Constitution  when  it  suited  their  purposes  to  do  so.  The 
Constitution  declares  that  the  citizens  of  one  State  shall 
enjoy  all  the  rights  of  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  in  all 
the  other  States.  But  in  the  South  the  citizens  of  the  free 
States  are  seized  the  moment  they  step  on  Southern  soil, 
thrust  into  prison,  and  then,  if  no  one  appears  to  buy  them 
out,  are  sold  to  pay  their  jail  fees.  The  freedom  of  speech 
and  of  the  press  is  guaranteed  to  all  persons  by  the  Constitu- 
tion, but  in  the  South  it  is  certain  death  to  attempt  to  exercise 
this  right  in  speaking  or  writing  against  slavery.  Compacts 
which  stood  a  generation  are  coolly  repudiated  by  the  South. 
After  securing  their  own  part  of  the  property  in  stipulation, 
they  turn  round,  and,  without  a  word  of  excuse,  attempt  to 
steal  that  part  which  had,  by  their  own  solemn  compact,  been 
secured  to  the  North.  By  these  and  a  thousand  similar  acts 
of  villainy,  the  slaveholders  have  proved  themselves  incapa- 
ble of  keeping  faith,  and  hence  no  faith  should  be  kept  with 
them.  They  should  be  commanded  to  give  up  their  stolen 
goods,  including  three  millions  of  men,  women  and  children, 
and  if  they  refuse,  should  be  hunted  from  the  earth  as  pirates 
are  hunted  from  the  seas. 

In  view  of  these  indisputable  facts  and  principles,  we  are 
amazed  that  the  Republican  party,  and  nearly  all  the  papers 
in  its  interest,  continue  to  concede  to  the  slaveholder  the 
right  to  pursue  and  capture  his  escaped  victim  on  Northern 
soil.  If  justice  and  manhood  prevailed,  every  free  State 
would  pass  a  law  securing  freedom  to  the  fugitive  slave  the 
moment  he  set  his  foot  upon  their  soil,  whether  he  came  with 
or  without  his  so-called  master's  consent ;  and  making  it  a 
penitentiary  oifense  for  the  latter  to  pollute  their  territory  by 
his  presence  in  pursuit  of  his  victim.  If  Grod's  law  were  in 
force  in  Ohio,  the  poor  fugitives  now  on  trial  for  their  liberty, 
in  Cincinnati,  would  dwell  safely  "  where  it  liked  them  best" 
in  the  State,  and  their  pursuers  would  be  doing  the  State  ser- 
vice in  a  public  institution  at  Columbus. 

16 


178  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS  OF 

Higher  and  Lower  Law. 

The  reader  will  find  a  specimen  of  each  in  our  paper  to-day. 
On  the  first  page  is  the  eloquent,  thrilling,  Christian  speech 
of  Mr.  Jolliffe  ;  on  the  fourth  page  is  the  weak,  inhuman, 
atheistic  decision  of  Judge  Leavitt.  How  great  the  contrast ! 
The  antagonism  between  light  and  darkness,  holiness  and 
crime,  Christianity  and  atheism,  we  have  rarely  seen  more 
broadly  marked.  The  decision  of  Judge  Leavitt,  as  a  mere 
specimen  of  legal  ability,  is  weakness  personified.  The  whole 
question  of  the  relative  rights  of  the  marshal  and  the  sheriff 
to  hold  the  fugitives,  is  made  to  turn  on  the  mere  accident  of 
the  marshall  having  com&  first  into  possession  of  them.  But 
in  the  nature  of  the  case  it  could  not  possibly  be  otherwise. 
They  were  arrested  by  warrant,  issued  by  the  commissioner 
under  the  fugitive  act,  in  the  hands  of  the  marshal.  At  the 
very  moment  of  arrest,  the  killing  of  the  child,  which  gave 
rise  to  the  indictment  for  murder,  took  place.  The  arrest  was 
the  cause  of  the  killing.  The  act  was  barely  consummated 
when  they  were  seized  by  the  marshal,  and  hence  it  was  an 
utter  impossibility  that  an  arrest  for  murder  should  take  place 
before  the  arrest  under  the  fugitive  act.  But  on  this  mere 
casual  incident,  Judge  Leavitt  decides  the  broad  and  momen- 
tous question  of  the  relative  jurisdiction  of  the  State  of  Ohio 
and  of  the  United  States.  Could  the  fugitives  have  been  first 
arrested  on  charge  of  murder,  the  right  of  the  sheriff'  to  hold 
them  in  spite  of  the  commissioner's  warrant,  according  to 
Judge  Leavitt,  would  have  been  undoubted.  Was  ever  such 
a  grave  legal  question  before  decided  on  such  trivial  grounds  ? 
Was  there  ever  judicial  trifling  equal  to  this? 

But  the  legal  weakness  of  the  decision  is  not  its  worst 
feature.  It  moral  character  is  even  worse.  The  Hon.  Judge 
reiterates  the  lower  law  atheism,  which  has  been  the  current 
teaching  of  venal  pulpits  and  religious  presses  for  the  last  five 
years.  Speaking  of  that  compound  of  meanness  and  villainy, 
the  fugitive  act,  he  says  : 

"  And  I  may  here  remark,  that,  speaking  judicially,  this 
question  is  not  affected  by  the  fact  that  the  law  of  the  United 
States  under  which  the  process  issues,  and  these  persons  are 
in  custody,  may  be  viewed,  even  by  a  majority  of  community, 
as  inexpedient,  unjust  and  oppressive.  Until  repealed,  or 
adjudged  void  on  the  ground  of  unconstitutionality,  by  the 
proper  judicial  tribunal  of  the  Union,  it  must  be  be  respected 
and  observed  as  law." 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  179 

Then,  of  course,  the  midwives  of  Egypt  were  rehels  against 
law  and  government,  and  deserving  of  severest  censure.  Then 
Daniel  was  guilty  of  rebellion,  and  his  three  brothers  were 
wicked  fanatics.  No  doubt  if  Judge  Leavitt  had  lived  at 
Babylon  in  their  day,  he  would  have  thought  them  guilty  of 
causing  a  very  foolish  and  sinful  waste  of  fire-wood  in  the 
heating  of  the  furnace  for  their  raartyrdon.  According  to  his 
doctrine,  Paul  and  Peter,  and  the  other  apostles  were  traitors 
to  the  government,  deserving  of  death.  They  should  have 
"respected  and  observed  as  law"  the  decree  that  forbade  them 
to  teach  and  to  preach  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  until  it  had  been 
"  repealed,  or  adjudged  void  by  the  proper  tribunal."  All 
who  have  ever  stood  out  for  right  against  power,  and  for  jus- 
tice against  oppressive  and  infamous  statutes,  were  traitors 
and  fanatics.  But  when  this  doctrine  is  taught  in  the  pulpit, 
it  is  not  strange  that  it  should  be  taught  as  good  morality 
from  the  bench. 

Injustice  and  oppression,  if  embodied  in  the  form  of  law, 
according  to  Judge  Leavitt,  are  worthy  of  respect  and  obedi- 
ence. Then  all  that  is  necessary  to  make  any  injustice  and  op- 
pression worthy  of  respect,  is  to  enact  them  into  statutory  law. 
If  the  Legislature  of  Ohio  should  pass  an  act  to  sell  Judge 
Leavitt  and  his  wife  and  children  on  the  auction  block,  he 
would  be  bound  on  his  own  principle  to  "  respect  and  obey  " 
it.  This  doctrine  is  subversive  of  all  distinction  between 
right  and  wrong.  It  overturns  the  very  foundation  of  jus- 
tice. It  will  produce  the  very  worst  anarchy  and  disorder.  It 
is  practical  atheism  of  the  most  dangerous  character. 


Outside  the  Range  of  the  Divine  Operations. 

The  forces  of  God's  kingdom,  both  of  nature  and  of  grace, 
operate  ordinarily  within  fixed  boundaries  and  in  certain 
directions;  and  it  is  quite  possible  for  men  to  place  themselves 
outside  the  range  of  their  operations.  Thus  the  natural  laws 
by  the  operation  of  which  rain  falls  upon  the  earth,  act  only 
within  certain  limits.  There  are  portions  of  the  earth,  as  the 
Desert  of  Sahara,  for  instance,  on  which  it  never  rains.  Now, 
the  mi»n  who  desires  the  rain  to  fall  upon  his  fields  and  render 
them  fruitful,  must  not  make  his  home  and  plant  his  seed  in 
the  barren  desert.  By  so-doing  he  places  himself  outside  of 
the  forces  of  nature  by  which  rain  is  produced. 


180  LIFE    AND   WRITINGS   OF 

It  is  a  law  of  light  that  it  will  not  penetrate  opaque  sub- 
stances. Hence  the  man  who  would  live  in  the  sunlight  must 
not  make  his  home  in  the  deep  mine.  So  doing  he  puts  him- 
self beyond  the  operation  of  the  laws  of  light. 

Those  portions  of  the  earth's  surface  which  lie  around  the 
poles,  never  come  suflSciently  under  the  rays  of  the  sun  to 
become  warm.  Hence  the  man  who  desires  the  warmth  of 
the  sun  must  not  make  his  home  amid  the  icebergs  around 
the  poles.  He  is  there  outside  the  operation  of  the  forces  by 
which  the  earth  is  warmed. 

Now  it  is  quite  within  man's  power  to  betake  himself  to  the 
desert,  the  mine,  or  the  polar  iceberg.  But  so  long  as  he 
remains  there  he  can  not  hope  to  enjoy  the  blessings  of  rain, 
of  light,  or  of  heat. 

In  like  manner,  a  man  may  put  himself  outside  of  the  ope- 
ration of  the  forces  of  God's  kingdom  of  grace.  The  dew 
and  rain  of  the  Divine  Spirit  fall  not  on  the  heart  that  has 
made  itself  wholly  desert  and  barren.  Yet  every  man  may 
harden  his  heart  until  it  is  like  nothing  but  the  arid  and 
sandy  desert.  The  heart  is  hardened  through  the  deceitful- 
ness  of  sin,  and  it  is  in  every  man's  power  to  give  himself  up 
without  restraint  to  a  course  of  sinful  indulgence.  But  the 
habitual  indulgence  of  known  sin  will  make  the  soul  a  waste 
Sahara  on  which  no  dew  of  grace  distills,  and  where  not  a  sin- 
gle green  blade  appears  to  relieve  the  eye  or  give  promise  of 
the  least  fruit.  The  man  places  himself  beyond  the  range  of 
the  operation  of  thot  Divine  Power,  by  which  the  soul  is 
refreshed  and  quickened,  and  made  fruitful  in  works  of  right- 
eousness. 

Again,  the  light  of  God's  truth  and  Spirit  can  not  fall  on 
the  heart  that  is  sunk  in  unbelief.  Infidelity  is  a  deep  mine, 
to  whose  dark  recesses  the  rays  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness 
never  penetrate.  And  a  man  may  make  himself  an  infidel. 
He  has  only  to  close  his  mind  against  the  evidences  by  which 
the  inspired  oracles  are  attested,  and  give  himself  up  to  the 
lusts  of  an  unbelieving  heart,  and  the  work  is  done.  The 
Bible  forbids  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eye,  and  the 
pride  of  life.  But  the  natural  heart  loves  these,  and  there- 
fore hates  the  Bible  ;  and  man  has  only  to  give  full  scope  to 
this  love  of  sin  and  this  hatred  of  truth  to  become  completely 
blinded.  His  soul  is  then  beyond  the  territories  over  which 
the  Sun  of  Righteousness  shines. 

Again,  the  natural  selfishness  of  the  heart,  if  freely 
indulged,  will    soon    render   it  a   spiritual    iceberg.     Every 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  181 

warm,  generous,  and  benevolent  emotion  will  be  chilled  and 
frozen.  The  soul  may  create  around  itself  a  moral  atmos- 
phere as  cold  as  that  which  circulates  around  the  eternal  snow 
fields.  So  long  as  it  resigns  itself  to  the  native  selfishness  of 
the  carnal  heart,  it  can  feel  no  warmth  from  the  sun  of  truth 
and  love  that  shines  in  the  moral  heavens.  The  man  has 
placed  himself  outside  the  operation  of  those  Divine  influences 
by  which  the  heart  is  warmed.  The  genial  heat  of  God's  love 
can  not  reach  his  soul. 

Now  it  is,  of  course,  possible  for  God  to  exert  his  power 
outside  of  any  fixed  limits.  He  could  cause  the  clouds  to 
gather  and  empty  themselves  on  the  deserts  of  Africa.  He 
could  rive  the  earth  asunder  by  an  earthquake,  and  pour  the 
sunlight  into  the  deep  mine  ;  and  he  coidd  reverse  the  earth's 
axis,  and  bring  the  polar  regions  under  a  tropical  sun.  So  he 
can,  if  he  choose,  pour  the  dew  and  light  and  heat  of  his 
Holy  Spirit  on  the  hardened,  unbelieving  and  selfish  heart. 
But  such  is  not  his  way  of  action,  and  it  is  desperate  pre- 
sumption in  the  sinner  to  calculate  on  such  miraculous  inter- 
position of  God  in  his  behalf.  There  is  not  a  single  promise 
in  the  book  of  God  to  the  sinner  who  voluntarily  places  him- 
self outside  the  limits  within  which  the  saving  influences  of 
the  gospel  usually  operate. 


Savage. 


The  Memphis  Eagle  and  Enquirer,  alluding  to  the  fall  of 
Mr.  Giddings  from  illness  on  the  floor  of  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives, says : 

"  We  are  pretty  sure  that  some  Southern  members  rather 
relished  the  peculiar  manner  in  which  the  old  Abolitionist 
occupied  the  floor  then  and  there." 

This  is  another  illustration  of  the  barbarism  into  which 
slavery  is  sinking  the  people  of  the  South.  None  but  a  mind 
thoroughly  brutalized  could  pen  the  above  paragraph ;  and 
none  but  a  half-civilized  people  would  support  or  tolerate  such 
journalism.  Mr.  Giddings  has  grown  gray  in  a  long  life  of 
faithful  public  service.  His  head  is  crowned  with  the  honor 
which  follows  a  life  well  spent.  However  men  may  diff"er  with 
him  in  sentiment  on  particular  questions,  all  must  accord  to 
him  unshrinking  devotion  to  his  convictions  of  right,  the 
manners   and   deportment   of    a   gentleman,    and   a   life   of 


182  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

unspotted  integrity,  both  public  and  private.  To  "  relish  " 
the  sudden  fall  of  such  a  man  by  the  stroke  of  disease, 
betrays  the  heart  of  a  brute  or  a  fiend. 

How  diflFerent  the  spirit  in  which  the  Northern  press  chron- 
icled the  recent  sudden  death  of  a  somewhat  notorious  South- 
erner. They  point  the  moral  which  his  departure  teaches, 
and  rebuke  the  unseemly  eulogy  which  his  comrades  lavished 
upon  him,  but  they  express  no  exultation.  Had  his  friends 
permitted  they  would  have  suffered  him  to  be  borne  quietly 
to  his  grave,  without  allusion  to  the  act  that  will  make  his 
name  infamous  in  all  coming  time.  Yet  the  memory  of 
Brooks  was  crowned  with  lasting  dishonor,  while  no  stain  of 
atrocious  crime  attaches  to  the  name  of  Giddings. 


Dr.  McGill  on  the  Free  Presbyterian  Church, 

The  Rev.  A.  T.  McGill,  D.D.,  professor  in  the  Theological 
Seminary  at  Princeton,  and  permanent  clerk  of  the  0.  S.  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  was  the  delegate  from  that  body  to  the  Con- 
gregational Association  of  Massachusetts.  His  speech  before 
that  body,  at  its  late  meeting,  was  mainly  a  glorification  of 
the  position  of  his  church  on  the  subject  of  slavery.  Speak- 
ing of  the  results  of  the  "adjustment"  of  the  question  made 
at  Cincinnati  in  1845,  he  says  : 

"  Some  of  our  body  were  dissatisfied  with  the  position  in 
which  this  adjustment  left  us.  I.  do  not  know  personally  all 
who  left,  to  form  what  is  called  the  Free  Presbyterian  Church. 
I  know  that  some  of  them  were  estimable  men  ;  but  I  know 
that  the  foremost  and  hottest  man  in  repudiating  the  church 
of  his  fathers  has,  since  that  time,  repudiated  all  religious 
organizations,  has  renounced  the  Saviour,  has  cursed  the 
Bible,  and  has  gone  to  the  world  a  violent  infidel — a  mis- 
creant reviler  of  all  that  is  sacred  and  decent  in  the  usages  of 
Christian  civilization.  And  I  know  that  another  of  the  most 
eloquent  in  leading  off  that  exodus  from  us,  on  account  of 
slavery,  has  since  turned  the  sacred  desk  into  a  mere  political 
stump,  and  takes  every  text  to  vilify  all  that  is  dominant  in 
Church  and  State.  Now,  sir,  if  we  had  nothing  else  to  justify 
this  action  in  our  eye,  this  ruin  of  those  who  have  gone  off 
would  satisfy  us  that  we  are,  in  all  probability  in  the  right." 

We  have  seldom  read  any  misrepresentation  of  our  church 
with  as  much  regret  as  the  above ;  not  so  much  on  account  of 


REV.   JOSEPH    GORDON.  183 

the  statements  it  contains  (for  they  are  too  utterly  unfounded 
to  do  us  any  harm),  as  on  account  of  the  source  from  whence 
they  come.  For  the  greater  portion  of  two  terms  in  a  theo- 
logical seminary,  it  was  our  privilege  to  enjoy  the  instruction 
of  Dr.  McGrill.  The  intercourse  between  us  as  teacher  and 
pupil  was  uniformly  of  the  most  kind  and  agreeable  character. 
We  have  ever  regarded  him  as  a  man  of  the  strictest  truth 
and  integrity,  and  as  a  kind,  amiable,  courteous  Christian 
gentleman.  We  formed  for  him  an  attachment  which  the^ 
lapse  of  years,  and  our  separation  from  the  Old  School  Pres- 
byterian Church,  have  scarcely  weakened.  It  is  this  which 
causes  our  regret  in  reading  statements  so  unfair  and  untrue 
as  are  contained  in  the  foregoing  extract. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  not  true  that  a  single  minister,  who 
left  the  Old  School  Presbyterian  Church  on  account  of  the 
"  adjustment "  of  1845,  and  aided  in  organizing  the  Free 
Presbyterian  Church,  has  become  an  infidel.  The  individ- 
ual to  whom,  we  suppose.  Dr.  McGill  alludes,  left  the  0.  S. 
Pres.  Church  two  years  before  the  year  1845,  and  never  was 
a  member  of  the  Free  Presbyterian  Church.  He  has  de- 
nounced our  church  quite  as  freely  as  he  has  the  0.  S.  Pres. 
Church.  His  infidelity  moreover  is  the  work  of  the  pro- 
slavery  teachings  of  Old  School  Drs.  of  Divinity,  and  others. 
Whatever  "  ruin  "  there  may  be,  in  his  case,  is  the  result  of 
the  persistent  eff"orts  of  pro-slavery  "  divines  "  to  prove  that 
the  Bible  sanctions  slavery.  Instead  of  indulging,  therefore, 
in  self-righteous  glorification  over  such  cases,  Dr.  McGill  and 
his  colaborers  should  take  to  themselves  shame  and  confusion 
of  face  over  the  "  ruin  "  their  own  hands  have  wrought. 

Again,  the  statement  that  "  another  of  the  most  eloquent 
in  leading  ofi"  the  exodus  from  the  Old  School  General  Assem- 
bly, has  turned  the  sacred  desk  into  a  mere  political  stump, 
and  takes  every  text  to  vilify  all  that  is  dominant  in  Church 
or  State,"  is  not  true.  Free  Presbyterian  ministers  believe 
that  civil  government  is  God's  ordinance,  and  that  he  has 
defined  the  character  of  the  civil  ruler  in  his  word.  They 
believe  that  men  should  vote  as  they  pray ;  that  they  should 
vote,  as  well  as  eat  and  drink,  to  the  glory  of  God.  They 
have,  therefore,  preached  these  Bible  truths  to  their  people, 
and  have  tried  to  show  them  how,  in  their  judgment,  they 
could  vote  for  the  glory  of  God.  To  this  extent  and  no  more, 
they  have  turned  the  "  sacred  desk  into  a  political  stump," 
and  we  defy  Dr.  McGill  and  every  body  else  to  snow  to  the 
contrary. 


184  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

But  the  worst  thing  in  the  Dr.'s  tissue  of  false  statements 
is  representing  those  who  have  gone  off  from  the  Old  School 
as  "ruined."  Suppose  the  foregoing  statements  about  two 
individuals  were  as  true  as  they  are  false,  and  what  a  mon- 
strous conclusion  is  it,  that  the  whole  Free  Presbyterian 
Church  has  gone  to  "ruin  "  in  consequence.  The  Free  Pres- 
byterian Church  numbers  about  fifty  ministers.  Suppose  two 
of  them  had  gone  to  moral  ruin,  which  is  not  the  fact,  what 
then  ?  With  far  more  propriety  might  an  old  Pharisee  have 
represented  the  church  and  cause  of  Jesus  Christ  as  gone  to 
ruin,  because  out  of  a  ministry  of  twelve  one  did  prove  a  vile 
traitor,  whereas,  according  to  Dr.  McGill's  own  showing,  only 
two  out  of  fifty,  or  one  out  of  every  twenty-five,  of  our  min- 
isters, has  proved  recreant  to  his  high  calling.  This  mode  of 
judging  and  pronouncing  sentence  is  monstrous.  From  time 
to  time  ministers  of  the  0.  S.  Pres.  Church  are  tried  and 
excommunicated  for  heresy,  for  dishonesty,  for  adultery, 
fornication  and  other  crimes.  We  could  name  more  than  a 
dozen  fuch,  within  our  own  limited  range  of  observation. 
Shall  we,  therefore,  say  that  the  whole  body  is  ruined  ?  Such 
cases  occur  in  all  churches,  and  it  is  the  grossest  injustice  to 
charge  their  guilt  upon  the  whole  church,  unless  the  church 
retains  them  in  fellowship,  after  their  guilt  is  brought  to 
light. 

There  is  another  fact  which  renders  the  statements  of  Dr. 
McGill  still  more  inexcusable.  He  represents  Free  Presby- 
terians as  having  gone  to  ruin,  because  they  seceded  from  a 
church  which  proclaims  that  its  own  organization  is  based  on 
the  conceded  principle,  that  slavery,  as  it  exists  at  the  South, 
is  no  bar  to  Christian  communion,  and  because  they  have 
formed  a  church  which  denies  Christian  fellowship  to  slave- 
holders. This  position  he  represents  as  the  cause  of  their 
"  ruin."  Now  what  will  the  reader  think,  when  he  is  told 
that  Dr.  McGill  was  baj.tized,  reared,  educated,  studied  theol- 
ogy, was  licensed  and  ordained  to  preach,  and  actually  did 
preach  several  years  in  a  church  which,  as  long  ago  as  1832, 
took  the  very  same  ground  of  non-fellowship  with  slavery, 
which  our  church  occupies;  and  has  maintained  it  ever  since? 
Yet  such  is  the  fact.  Dr.  McGill  had  all  his  training,  and 
spent  the  first  years  of  his  ministry,  in  the  Associate  Presby- 
terian (Seceder)  Church;  and  he  knows  full  well  that  the 
position  of  that  church,  of  the  Covenanters  and  Associate 
Reformed,  all  of  which  exclude  slaveholders  from  fellowship, 
has  not  been  their  ruin.     They  have  grown  as  rapidly  in  pro- 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  185 

portion  to  their  numbers  at  first,  as  other  churches ;  and  they 
are  distinguished  above  others  for  their  steadfast  adherence 
to  the  doctrines  of  the  Bible,  and  to  the  Presbyterian  form  of 
church  government.  And,  yet,  with  these  facts  before  him, 
Dr.  McGill  can  represent  a  church  as  going,  or  gone  to  ruin, 
because  it  refuses  Christian  fellowship  to  slaveholders.  So 
saying,  he  reproaches  and  "  repudiates  the  church  of  Ms 
fathers." 

Dr.  McGill  is  a  man  of  powerful  and  brilliant  intellect. 
The  fact,  therefore,  that  he  can  bring  no  better  reasons  than 
the  foregoing  misstatements,  to  prove  that  his  church  "is  in 
the  right,"  is  the  strongest  possible  presumptive  proof,  that 
on  the  question  of  slavery  it  is  wholly  in  the  wrong. 


Cant. 


In  the  course  of  a  sermon,  preached  before  the  Old  School 
General  Assembly,  at  St.  Louis,  by  Dr.  Humphrey,  of  Louis- 
ville, on  the  subject  of  Domestic  Missions,  occurs  this 
passage : 

"In  brief,  ours  is  both  historically  and  constitutionally,  a 
free  church  in  the  bosom  of  a  free  people — a  republic  within 
a  republic.  It  is  identified  at  once,  with  all  that  is  glorious 
in  the  history  of  the  country,  and  with  all  that  is  far  more 
exceedingly  glorious  in  the  hopes  of  another  and  better 
country,  even  an  heavenly.  For  this  reason  it  has  a  precise 
adaptation  to  the  work  of  spreading  the  gospel  throughout 
the  land.  It  is  in  sympathy  with  the  common  people,  with  all 
their  patriotic  sentiments,  their  passionate  love  of  liberty,  their 
most  cherished  institutions.  Our  missionary  on  the  most  dis- 
tant frontier,  or  in  the  remote  wilderness,  where  a  few  hardy 
settlers  are  just  letting  in  the  sun  upon  the  soil,  may  capti- 
vate at  once  their  understanding  and  republican  sympathies, 
by  laying  open  the  principles  of  our  ecclesiastical  policy  ;  thus 
demonstrating  that  Preshyterianism,  though  so  long  maligned, 
is  hut  another  name  for  truth  and  liberty.^' 

These  sentences  are  found  in  the  midst  of  an  eloquent  dis- 
quisition on  the  sympathy  of  Presbyterianism,  in  past  times, 
with  civil  and  religious  liberty.  It  is  true  of  every  form  of 
Presbyterianism,  except  that  represented  by  the  two  General 
Assemblies  of  this  country,  that  it  is  the  fast  friend  of  the 
largest  liberty.     It  is  true   that  it  was  in  the  days  of  the 


186  LIFE   AND    WRITINGS    OF 

Westminster  Assembly,  and  in  the  time  of  the  American 
Revolution,  "  in  sympathy  with  the  people's  passionate  love 
of  liberty."  It  is  one  of  the  glories  of  Presbyterianism,  that 
it  has  in  past  times  been  the  foe  of  tyranny,  and  the  stern 
advocate  of  the  rights  of  man.  In  the  mouth  of  an  old  Cove- 
nanter, in  the  days  of  Cromwell,  or  in  the  mouth  of  any  of 
their  legitimata  descendants,  in  this  day,  the  language  of  Dr. 
Humphrey  would  be  appropriate.  But  in  the  mouth  of  their 
author,  and  before  the  Assembly  he  was  addressing,  they  are 
words  of  canting  hypocrisy.     Look  at  it. 

The  speaker  himself,  if  we  are  not  mistaken,  is  an  Eastern 
man  by  birth  and  education,  now  a  slaveholder  in  Louisville, 
Ky.  The  Assembly  to  which  he  was  speaking,  has  adopted 
as  her  deliberate  testimony,  that  she  originally  organized, 
and  has  since  continued  the  bond  of  union  on  the  conceded 
principle  that  domestic  slavery,  in  the  circumstances  in  which 
it  exists  in  the  southern  portion  of  this  country,  is  no  bar  to 
Christian  communion.  They  affirm,  moreover,  that  among 
the  duties  enjoined  by  Christ  and  his  apostles  upon  slave- 
holders, that  of  emancipation  is  not  enumerated  ;  and  that 
for  them  to  pronounce  the  holding  of  slaves  a  heinous  sin, 
demanding  the  discipline  of  the  Church,  would  be  virtually 
to  dissolve  their  Assembly,  and  abandon  the  organization 
under  which  by  the  Divine  blessing  they  have  so  long  pros- 
pered. The  practice  of  the  church,  taking  the  testimony  of 
their  own  Synods,  and  Presbyteries  and  churches  as  evidence, 
is  even  worse  than  this  declaration  of  sentiment.  About 
eighty  thousand  immortal  beings  are  held  by  her  ministers 
and  members  in  a  state  of  bondage,  the  most  absolute  and 
unmitigated  that  exists  on  the  face  of  the  globe.  They  are 
without  legal  protection  for  a  single  right,  and  completely 
subject  to  the  irresponsible  will  of  their  owners,  however 
cruel  and  capricious  that  will  may  be.  Their  treatment  in 
this  condition  by  members  and  ministers  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  is  often  infernally  cruel.  Take  a  few  items  of  testi- 
mony. Says  the  0.  S.  Synod,  of  Kentucky  :  "  Cases  occur  in 
our  own  denomination  in  lohich  professors  of  the  religion  of 
mercy  sell  tlie  mother  from  Tier  children^  and.  send  her  into  mer- 
ciless and  retur)dess  exile,  and  yet  discipline  rarely  follows^ 
The  Rev.  Francis  Hawley,  pastor  of  a  Baptist  Church  in  Cole- 
brook,  Litchfield  County,  Connecticut,  resided  fourteen  years 
in  North  and  South  Carolina.  His  standing  and  character 
may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  the  Baptist  State  Conven- 
tion of  North  Carolina,  appointed  him  a  few  years  since  their 


REV.   JOSEPH    GORDON.  187 

general  agent  to  visit  the  Baptist  churches  within  their 
bounds,  and  to  secure  theii'  co-operation  in  the  objects  of  the 
Convention.  In  the  course  of  a  narrative,  published  under 
his  own  signature,  he  relates  this  incident : 

"  I  will  now  give  a  few  facts  showing  the  workings  of  the 
system.  Some  years  since  a  Presbyterian  minister  moved 
from  North  Carolina  to  Georgia.  He  had  a  negro  man  of  an 
uncommon  mind.  For  some  cause,  I  know  not  what,  this 
master  whipped  him  most  unmercifully.  He  next  nearly 
drow/ied  him  ;  he  then  put  him  in  (he  fence.  This  is  done  by 
lifting  up  the  corner  of  a  '  worm  '  fence,  and  then  putting  the 
feet  through.  The  rails  serve  as  stocks.  He  kept  him  there 
some  time,  how  long  I  was  not  informed,  but  the  poor  slave 
died  in  a  few  days  ;  and  if  I  was  rightly  informed,  nothing 
was  done  about  it,  either  in  Church  or  State.  After  some 
time  he  moved  back  to  North  Carolina,  and  is  now  a  member 

of  Presbytery.     I  have   heard  him  preach,  and  have 

been  in  the  pulpit  with  him.     May  God  forgive  me  !  " 

The  same  witness  relates  the  following  : 

"  One  of  my  neighbors  sold  a  speculator  a  negro  boy  about 
fourteen  years  old.  It  was  more  than  his  poor  mother  could 
bear.  Her  reason  fled,  and  she  became  a  perfect  maniac,  and 
had  to  be  kept  in  close  confinement.  She  would  occasionally 
get  out  and  run  off  to  the  neighbors.  On  one  of  these  occa- 
sions she  came  to  my  house.  She  was,  indeed,  a  pitiable 
object.  With  tears  rolling  down  her  cheeks,  and  her  frame 
shaking  with  agony,  she  would  cry  out,  '  Dont  you  hear  him, 
they  are  whipping  him  now,  and  he  is  calling  for  me.'  This 
neighbor  of  mine,  who  tore  the  boy  away  from  his  poor 
mother,  and  thus  broke  her  heart,  was  a  member  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church.' ' 

The  Synod  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  embracing  all 
the  clergy  of  those  States,  give  this  testimony : 

"  Those  only  who  have  the  management  of  servants  know 
what  the  hardening  effect  of  it  is  upon  their  own  feelings 
toward  them.  There  is  no  necessity  to  dwell  on  this  point,  as 
all  owners  and  managers  fully  understand  it.  He  who  com- 
mences to  manage  them  with  tenderness  and  with  a  willing- 
ness to  favor  them  in  every  way,  must  be  watchful,  otherwise 
he  will  settle  down  in  indifference,  if  not  severity.  " 

We  add  but  one  other  item,  from  a  volume  of  the  same  sort 
in  our  possession,  all  of  the  most  unquestionable  character. 
The  Rev.  Charles  S.  Renshaw,  of  Quincy,  Illinois,  formerly  a 


188  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

resident  of  Kentucky,  testifies  as  follows,  in  speaking  of  the 
Presbyterian  minister  and  church  where  he  resided  : 

"  The  minister  and  all  the  church-members  held  slaves. 
Some  were  treated  kindly — others  harshly.  There  was  not  a 
shade  of  difference  between  their  slaves  and  those  of  their 
infidel  neighbors,  either  in  their  physical,  intellectual  or 
moral  state;  in  some  cases  they  would  suffer  in  the  com- 
parison. 

''  In  the  kitchen  of  the  minister  of  the  church  a  slave  was 
living  in  open  adultery  with  a  slave  woman  who  was  a  member 
of  the  church,  with  an  'assured  hope'  of  heaven,  while  the 
man's  wife  was  on  the  minister's  farm  in  Fayette  County. 
The  minister  had  to  bring  a  cook  down  from  his  farm  to  the 
place  in  which  he  was  preaching.  The  choice  was  between 
the  wife  of  the  man  and  this  church-member.  He  left  the 
xoife  and  brought  the  church-member  to  the  adulterer's  bed." 

We  present  these  as  mere  specimens  of  the  actual  condition 
of  the  slave.  These  facts  exhibits  his  treatment  by  Presbyte- 
rians in  the  South — the  ministers,  and  elders,  and  members 
of  that  church  which  Dr.  Humphrey  boasts  is  in  sympathy 
with  the  people's  passionatejove  of  liberty  !  We  present  one 
other  fact  illustrative  of  the  spirit  of  the  General  Assembly 
itself.  A  member  of  the  Assembly  of  1849,  which  sat  in 
Pittsburg,  relates  the  following  : 

"  There  is  a  fact  that  occurred  in  connection  with  the 
Assembly  of  1849,  which  sat  in  the  city  of  Pittsburg,  that  is 
worthy  of  notice.  In  the  providence  of  God,  a  poor  African 
female  slave  presented  herself  at  the  door  of  the  Assembly, 
with  a  paper  certified  by  a  number  of  respectable  ministers, 
begging  some  pecuniary  aid  to  help  her  to  purchase  herself, 
her  husband  and  her  children,  who  were  all  owned  by  a 
master  in  Virginia.  I,  being  a  member  of  the  Assembly, 
endeavored  to  do  what  I  was  able  for  her  by  my  own  contri- 
butions, and  by  circulating  her  paper.  Among  other  means 
the  thought  occurred  to  me  that  it  might  do  good  to  have  her 
papers  read  before  the  Assembly  ;  and,  accordingly,  I  sug- 
gested it  to  a  number  of  the  members  and  the  moderator,  but 
they  all  disapproved  of  the  suggestion,  and  her  papers  were 
not  read." 

Here,  a  poor  suppliant,  begging  the  means  to  secure  herself 
and  family  from  this  worse  than  Algerine  bondage,  is  denied 
even  a  hearing.  Jesus  Christ  always  received  kindly  and 
listened  tenderly  to  the  petition  of  the  very  poorest.  Yet 
this  General  Assembly,  boasting  through  Dr.  Humphrey  of 


REV.   JOSEPH    GORDON.  189 

its  devotion  to  freedom  and  justice,  turns  coldly  away  from 
the  humble  petition  of  a  broken-hearted  mother. 

But  to  exhibit  the  full  effrontery  of  this  vain  boasting,  we 
present  another  extract  from  the  sermon  of  Dr.  Humphrey. 
Among  the  objects  of  home  missions,  he  mentions  these  very 
outraged  victims  of  wrong.  Strange  that  a  sense  of  shame 
did  not  crimson  his  brow  and  choke  his  utterance.  In  the 
course  of  his  remarks  on  the  subject,  this  passage  occurs: 

"  They  are  the  poor  of  the  land,  and  to  the  poor  the  gospel 
is  preached.  '  For  I  am  a  debtor '  said  the  apostle,  '  both  to 
the  Greeks  and  to  the  barbarians,  both  to  the  wise  and  unwise.' 
Further,  they  are  accessible  to  us.  We  cross  no  sea  or  moun- 
tain to  reach  them  ;  we  acquire  no  barbarous  jargon  ;  we  visit 
no  inhospitable  shore  to  bear  to  them  the  unspeakable  riches 
of  Christ.  They  are  here ;  they  are  all  around  us ;  they 
speak  our  language  :  they  cultivate  our  fields  ;  they  sit  with 
us  in  the  house  of  (rod ;  they  wait  in  our  houses ;  they  come 
even  into  our  bedchambers.  T honsands  of  them  are  under 
service  to  the  comviunicants  or  worshipers  in  our  congregations^ 
and  our  ministers  may  have  access  as  easy  to  the  servant 
as  to  their  masters." 

Here  is  the  admission  from  this  boaster  of  Presbyterian 
devotion  to  freedom,  that  "  thousands  of  immortal  human 
beings  are  under  sei'vice  to  the  communicants  or  worshipers 
in  their  congregations."  The  nature  of  this  service  is  exhib- 
ited in  the  extracts  already  given,  and  in  thousands  of  simi- 
lar facts  in  our  possession.  The  whole  power  of  the  Assembly 
is  wielded  to  sustain  the  system  that  licenses  and  perpetuates 
these  oppressions  and  outrages  on  the  defenseless  poor.  The 
oppressors  are  taken  by  thousands  to  the  communion  tabic, 
and  their  Christian  (!)  character  indorsed.  Northern  minis- 
ters, and  many  of  them  abolitionists,  sit  down  with  them  to 
partake  of  the  symbols  of  the  Saviour's  passion,  and  thus 
lend  their  influence  and  character  to  uphold  the  wrong.  And 
then  doughface  and  slaveholder  together,  go  to  the  hall  of  the 
General  Assembly  to  listen  with  self-complacent  pride  to  the 
praises  of  Presbyterian  devotion  to  liberty. 


Sound   Doctrine. 

The  New  Haven  Register  has  a  report  of  the  speeches  at  the 
Union  meeting  held  in  New  Haven.     Among  the  addresses 


190  LIFE    AND   WRITINGS   OF 

was  one  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Taylor,  Professor  of  Didactic  Theol- 
ogy in  Yale  College,  which  can  not  fail  to  be  productive  of 
good.     We  make  extracts  from  it. 

"  I  am  happy  to  be  here.  I  am  glad  to  see  the  indiiference 
to  party  ties,  when  the  great  interests  of  the  nation  are  in 
issue.  Long  enough  has  this  subject  been  trifled  with.  Long 
enough  have  the  enemies  of  law  and  order  had  this  subject 
all  on  their  side,  and  reasoned  it  all  the  wrong  way.  I  am, 
therefore,  most  ready  to  express  my  entire  dissent,  and 
unqualified  disapprobation  of  all  those  attempts  to  degrade 
that  article  in  our  Constitution,  upon  which  so  much  has  beei 
said,  and  to  trample  on  the  law,  which  all  Northern  men  are 
bound  to  stand  by  and  support  in  good  faith  to  the  very 
last.     (Cheers.) 

"  I  say  in  good  faith ;  and  I  ask  if  the  compact  between  the 
Northern  and  Southern  States — independent  sovereignties — 
was  not  a  lawful  compact?  Had  not  the  North  interests  at 
stake  to  justify  them?  I  will  not  go  into  the  question 
whether  slavery  is  a  sin.  Be  it  so  if  you  please.  Had  they 
not  reason,  and  good  reason,  for  entering  into  this  compact? 
I  will  make  a  supposition  :  Suppose  Kussia  and  her  hordes, 
combined  with  Germany,  Austria,  Prussia,  France,  and  Eng- 
land, were  threatening  to  conquer  and  devastate  our  country, 
and  there  is  slavery  in  Spain  ;  suppose  for  our  own  protection 
and  safety,  we  deem  it  necessary  to  enter  into  an  alliance 
with  Spain.  Now  there  are  slaves  in  Spain  and  Cuba,  and  if 
this  combination  is  made  for  our  protection,  Spain  says  some 
of  her  slaves  will  get  among  our  people,  and  our  people  will 
not  deliver  them  up. 

"War  is  coming,  desolation  is  coming;  it  is  a  sin,  if  you 
please,  for  Spain  to  have  slaves ;  may  we  not  lawfully,  and  for 
our  own  safety,  enter  into  such  a  compact,  and  agree  to  de- 
liver up  these  slaves.  We  have  not  made  the  slave ;  she  is 
independent,  and  it  is  made  by  her  own  local  laws,  in  the 
enjoyment  of  those  local  rights  which  she,  as  an  independent 
sovereign  has  a  right  to  exercise,  so  far  as  we  are  concerned. 
Whether  she  is  right  so  far  as  her  responsibility  to  the  Judge 
of  the  earth  is  concerned,  is  another  question.  But,  so  far 
as  we  are  concerned,  she  has  a  right  to  make  these  laws. 
What !  may  I  not  buy  a  piece  of  meat  from  a  butcher,  because 
he  is  profan,e?  May  I  not  make  contracts  with  men  whose 
characters,  in  some  respects,  are  marred  by  evil?  May  I  not 
consult  my  own  safety  by  numerous  acts  of  a  defensive  and 
confederate  character,  because  the  men  who  are  eneaged  with 


REV.  JOSEPH     GORDON.  191 

me  are  not  as  good  as  I  wish  they  were  ?  Is  this  the  princi- 
ple in  neighborhoods?  Will  it  do  in  the  family?  Will  it  do 
better  among  nations?  What  right  have  we  to  make  laws 
for  the  Southern  States?  I  am  the  friend  of  slaves;  I  am 
sorry  for  slaves  ;  I  wish  them  well  with  all  my  heart  and  soul; 
and  as  I  wish  them  vpell,  I  say,  cease  these  agitations.  Who 
are  the  friends  of  the  slaves  at  the  North  ?  The  agitators  of 
this  subject  do  more  to  injure  the  slave  and  perpetuate  their 
chains  at  the  South,  than  their  true  friends  can  do  to  termin- 
ate the  evil  for  half  a  century.     (Cheers.) 

"As  to  the  higher  law  principle  :  You  expect  me  to  admit 
of  course,  that  we  are  all  the  subjects  of  Him  who  reigns 
amid  the  grandeur  and  glory  of  eternity,  and  that  when  his 
will  is  known,  we,  as  mortal  beings,  are  bound  to  submit. 
There  is  no  question  on  that  point;  here  is  the  point:  Is  that 
article  in  our  Constitution  contrary  to  the  will  of  God — con- 
trary to  the  law  of  nature,  of  nations,  and  the  will  of  God? 
Is  it  so?  Is  there  a  shadow  of  reason  for  saying  it  is?  I 
have  not  been  able  to  discover  it.  Have  I  not  shown  you  it 
is  lawful  to  deliver  up,  in  compliance  with  their  laws,  fugi- 
tive slaves,  for  the  high,  the  great,  the  momentous  interests 
of  these  States?  And  if  it  is  lawful  to  do  it,  is  it  not  in 
accordance  with  the  Constitution  to  make  a  law  providing  for 
that  result?  Is  there  any  law  of  God  against  this?  Is  there 
any  law  of  God  against  doing  lawful  things,  which  every  man 
must  do  in  the  course  of  his  life?    I  do  not  so  understand  it. 

"  Stand,  my  fellow  citizens,  by  law!  stand  by  the  Constitu- 
tion of  our  country;  that  Constitution,  which,  like  the  atmos- 
phere around  us,  blesses  every  breath  we  draw  ;  we  walk,  we 
sleep,  we  exist  every  moment  under  its  influence.  What 
would  become  of  us  if  the  Constitution  were  trampled  in  the 
dust?  No,  sir — as  has  been  said,  so  say  I,  with  all  my  heart 
and  soul,  if  any  of  my  fellow-citizens  do  not  value  the  Consti- 
tution enough  to  defend  it,  they  are  not  worthy  of  the  bless- 
ings it  gives  them.  (Cheers.)  I  say  again,  let  us  stand  by 
the  Constitution  and  the  law,  and  as  somebody  has  said,  as 
near  as  I  can  remember,  '  I  would  not  merely  protect  it  with 
the  shield  of  honest  Ajax,  I  would  protect  it  also  with  a  wall 
of  brass  ;  and  when  this  would  not  serve  the  purpose  of  pro- 
tection, then  would  I  circle  it  with  the  living  hearts  of  my 
countrymen,  and  in  its  defense  rally,  till  the  last  drop  of  blood 
were  expended  in  defending  the  Constitution.'  " 

We  take  the  above  from  the  Presbyterian  Advocate,  which 
expresses  the  conviction  that  it  "  can  not  fail  to  be  productive 


192  LIFE   A^•D    WRITINGS    OF 

of  good."  It  is  just  such  "sound  doctrine"  as  we  look  for 
in  the  Advocate.  Its  mingled  obtuseness  and  wickedness  fit 
it  most  admirably  for  the  columns  of  that  journal.  It  is 
another  melancholy  exhibition  of  the  infidelity  so  rife  among 
the  D.  Ds.  of  the  popular  churches  of  this  country.  When 
such  sentiments  are  put  forth  by  professors  of  theology,  and 
imbibed  by  their  pupils,  alas  !  for  the  churches  that  are  to  sit 
under  their  ministry. 

The  leading  idea  of  the  above  extract  is,  that,  on  the  suppo- 
sition of  slavery  being  a  sin,  the  North  had  a  right  to  enter 
into  a  compact  with  the  South,  to  deliver  up  the  escaping 
slave,  and  is  now  both  religiously  and  politically  bound  to 
fulfill  the  bargain  "  in  good  faith."  Now  if  it  be  a  sin  to  hold 
men  in  slavery,  it  must  be  right  for  the  slave  to  escape  if  he 
can  ;  and,  therefore,  it  must  be  a  sin  to  return  him  to  his 
bondage.  Admitting  that  the  slaveholder  sins  in  holding  his 
fellow-man  as  a  chattel.  Dr.  Taylor  contends,  that  another 
man  does  not  sin  by  entering  into  a  contract  to  help  him  to 
do  so,  if  there  are  what  he  considers  suflBcient  inducements 
for  so  doing.  It  may  be  sin  in  the  principal,  but  not  in  the 
accessory,  if  said  accessory  has  "interests  at  stake  to  justify  " 
him  in  aiding  and  abetting.  What  is  this  but  "  doing  evil 
that  good  may  come?"  It  is  sin  to  hold  the  slave,  but  to 
secure  certain  ''  interests  at  stake,"  it  is  not  sin  to  help  the 
slaveholder  to  do  the  wrong.  If  this  regard  to  "  interests  " 
may  bleach  one  vice  into  a  virtue,  it  may  another.  If  I  enter 
into  a  contract  with  another  to  help  him  commit  murder,  and 
have  good  reasons  for  so  doing,  it  is  my  duty,  according  to 
this  theory,  to  carry  out  my  engagement  in  "  good  faith." 
Men  have  only  to  conjure  up  what  they  may  think  good  rea- 
sons for  forming  a  compact  to  commit  any  crime,  and  Dr. 
Taylor's  principle  justifies  them  in  standing  to  the  bargain. 

But  exclaims  the  sagacious  Dr.  "  What !  may  I  not  buy  a 
piece  of  meat  from  a  butcher,  because  he  is  profane  ?  May  I 
not  make  contracts  with  men  whose  characters  in  some  res- 
pects are  marred  by  evil?"  The  object  of  this  illustration  is 
to  justify  a  contract  with  the  South  to  return  the  fugitive.  It, 
therefore,  betrays  unpardonable  stupidity,  or  a  willful  inten- 
tion to  deceive.  No  one  denies  the  right  to  buy  meat  from 
the  profane,  or  to  make  contracts  with  the  wicked.  But  wo 
do  deny  the  right  to  make  a  contract  to  aid  them  in  their 
xoickedness.  It  is  not  making  a  contract  with  slaveholders 
that  the  abolitionists  condemn,  but  making  a  contract  to  aid 
them   in   holding   their  slaves,  which  Dr.  Taylor  admits  (or 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  193 

does  not  deny),  is  sinful.  To  make  his  illustration  avail 
anything  for  his  purpose,  he  ought  to  show  that  it  would  be 
right  to  enter  into  a  contract  to  encourage  his  profane  butcher 
in  his  profanity.  He  ought  to  show  that  it  is  sinless  to  make 
contracts  with  "men  whose  characters  are  marred  by  evil," 
the  stipulations  of  which  bind  him  to  "  aid  and  comfort  "  them 
in  their  evil  ways. 

The  reasons  which  the  Dr.  alleges  for  the  North  entering 
into  a  wicked  compact  to  deliver  up  slaves  is  purely  a  fancy 
sketch.  (We  say  wicked  compact,  for,  in  the  sense  in  which 
it  is  commonly  understood,  the  article  of  the  Constitution  in 
question  is  wicked.  We  deny,  however,  that  it  is  rightly 
construed.)  But  admitting  the  conditions  do  exist — that  war 
and  desolation  are  coming  on  this  country,  and  that  the  only 
way  that  appears  to  "human  view  to  prevent  this  is  to  enter 
into  a  compact  to  do  an  admitted  wrong,  we  utterly  deny  the 
right  to  do  so.  To  assert  the  right  is  only  an  exhibition  of 
rank  infidelity.  It  is  a  most  insulting  distrust  of  God. 
What  does  it  amount  to?  Plainly  this:  that  God  can  not 
preserve  a  nation  from  destruction  and  the  ravages  of  war, 
except  they  enter  into  compact  with  another  nation  to  do  an 
acknowledged  wrong.  This  doctrine,  coming  from  an  infidel 
politician,  might  not  surprise  us,  but  coming  from  a  professed 
believer  in  a  superintending  and  omnipotent  Providence,  its 
infidelity  is  astounding.  God  is  so  straitened  (that  is  the 
idea)  for  means  to  accomplish  his  ends,  that  he  can,  in  a  given 
case,  preserve  a  nation  from  war  and  desolation  only  by  its 
entering  into  a  bargain  with  another  nation  to  aid  in  doing 
an  admitted  crime.  What  course  would  a  simple  Christian 
faith  dictate  in  such  circumstances?  A  prudent  use  of  all 
lawful  means  of  defense,  and  then  a  committal  of  the  whole 
case  to  that  "  God  who  presides  over  the  destinies  of  nations." 
All  such  crooked  expedients  as  the  one  lauded  by  Dr.  Taylor 
are  exhibitions  of  the  grossest  form  of  practical  unbelief. 
May  God  save  the  country  from  the  prevalence  of  such 
teachings. 


An  Accommodating  D.  D. 

There  is,  in  Holidaysburg,  in  this  State,  a  certain  doctor  of 
Divinity  named  McKinney,  who  has  recently  enlightened  the 
world  with  a  sermon  entitled,  "  The  Union  Preserved,  or  the 

17 


194  LIFE   AND    WBITINGS    OF 

Law-abiding  Christian."  The  way  this  doctor  in  Israel  blows 
hot  and  cold  must  rejoice  the  hearts  of  that  very  large  class 
of  modern  Rabbis  who  are  found  on  all  sides  of  moral  ques- 
tions at  once.  Speaking  of  the  Fugitive  Bill,  he  discourses 
as  follows  : 

"  There  is  another  view  of  this  subject  which  may  be  pre- 
sented for  a  moment.  A  law  may  be  neither  unconstitutional 
nor  immoral,  and  still  it  may  be  odious.  It  may  enjoin 
something  repulsive  to  the  feelings,  and  which  a  man  would 
not  perform,  though  at  the  risk  of  great  personal  suffering  to 
result  from  his  refusal.  Such  a  law,  if  esteemed  needless,  he 
would  naturally  and  strongly  desire  to  have  erased  from  the 
statute  book.  The  thought  of  its  existence  is  painful,  and 
from  its  execution  his  soul  revolts. 

"  And  such,  with  some  minds,  is  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law. 
They  regard  it  as  hard — very  hard  toward  a  fellow-being — as 
discordant  to  the  great  law  of  love,  and  severely  oppressive  to 
the  unfortunate.  The  poor  negro  is  a  slave /rom  no  fault  of 
his  oivn.  He  has  a  human  soul,  with  human  aspirations.  He 
is  bound  down.  The  chain  is  galling.  He  pants  for  liberty. 
He  has  heard  of  a  land  of  freedom — an  asylum — a  lap  of 
plenty,  where  the  poor  of  all  lands  find  a  home — a  refuge  for 
the  oppressed — a  rest  for  the  weary — a  land  where  the  funda- 
mental principles  are  freedom,  equality,  protection,  '  life,  lib- 
erty, and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.'  Hope  lights  up  his  soul. 
He  bursts  his  bonds,  and  flies  thither.  The  fugitive  is  in  our 
midst,  weary,  famished,  seeking  safety,  and  still  pursued. 
Shall  we  stop  his  progress?  Shall  we  deny  his  fainting  soul 
a  morsel  of  food?  Shall  we  seize  him,  and  bind  him  with 
thongs,  and  with  irons,  and  force  him  back  to  remediless 
servitude,  to  agony,  and  despair,  and  death?  And  shall  these 
hands — at  man's  bidding — touch  the  fugitive?  Shall  they  do 
the  foul  deed  ?  No  :  never — never — never  !  No  :  my  brother, 
though  your  face  is  strange,  and  your  body  dark ;  yet  that 
face  bears  the  lineaments  of  man,  and  that  body  encases  an 
immortal  spirit,  and  that  bondage  was  for  no  crime  of  yours. 
Here  is  food,  and  there  is  the  way. 

"  But  his  master  is  speedily  at  the  door,  also.  Well,  here 
is  bread  for  the  master ;  and  there  is  the  same  way  by  which 
the  servant  passed.  The  flying  slave  plead  the  claims  of 
humanity.  The  pursuing  master  has  the  protection  of  legal 
enactments.  Each  departs  from  me  refreshed,  and  with  his 
limbs  unfettered.  And  for  each  there  is  the  same  path  with- 
out an  obstacle." 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  195 

Food  for  the  slave,  and  food  for  the  master  alike  !  An 
open  way  for  both.  Both  leave  his  hospitable  threshold 
equally  refreshed.  Liberty  and  slavery  share  alike  in  his 
sympathies.  The  fugitive  seeking  the  priceless  boon  of  free- 
dom, and  the  slave-catcher  striving  to  rob  him  of  it,  and  to 
thrust  him  back  to  the  horrors  of  slavery,  are  alike  welcome 
under  the  hospitable  roof  of  Dr.  McKinney.  To  both  he 
points  the  way,  and  stands  by  to  see  the  race,  like  the  woman 
watching  the  fight  between  the  bear  and  her  husband,  not 
caring  a  fig  which  beats.  "  Good  Lord,  good  Devil."  What's 
the  use  to  take  sides  in  a  controversy  between  slavery  and 
freedom?  A  world  of  responsibility  and  trouble  is  avoided 
by  treating  both  parties  in  the  contest  alike. 

This  "aid  and  comfort"  to  the  man-catcher,  in  the  circum- 
stances supposed  by  this  impartial  D.  D.,  will  be  entirely 
gratuitous.  The  fugitive  law  (so  called)  does  not  demand  it. 
It  is  not  stipulated  in  the  bond.  That  "commands  good 
citizens  "  to  help  catch  the  runaway,  when  summoned  by  the 
marshal,  but  not  feed  the  kidnapper,  or  show  him  the  way. 

When  professed  teachers  of  religion  are  thus  indifferent  as 
between  right  and  wrong — when  they  accord  equal  favor  to 
justice  and  injustice — to  the  authority  of  God  and  the  Devil, 
what  can  be  expected  of  those  under  their  instruction? 
When  such  teachers  are  rife  in  the  land,  it  is  not  strange 
that  the  depravation  of  public  morals  should  be  rapid  and 
alarming. 


"  The  Spirit  of  Abolitionism." 

The  *SV.  Louis  Presbyterian  commenting  on  the  resolution 
of  the  Home  Missionary  Society,  "  that  in  the  disbursement 
of  the  funds  committed  to  their  trust,  the  Committee  will  not 
grant  aid  to  churches  containg  slaveholding  members,  unless 
evidence  be  furnished  that  the  relation  is  such  as  in  the  judg- 
ment of  the  Committee,  is  justifiable,  for  the  time  being,  in 
the  peculiar  circumstances  in  which  it  exists,"  remarks : 

"  We  see  in  this  resolution  the  true  spirit  of  abolitionism. 
The  Bible  is  no  rule  of  faith  and  practice  for  its  advocates; 
and  the  good  of  slaves  is  no  part  of  its  aim.  All  admit  that 
the  apostles  of  Christ  preached  without  hesitation  to  just  such 
churches  as  the  Committee  refuse  to  send  the  gospel  to  ;  and 
all  admit,  tliat  the  very  best  way  of  ameliorating  the  condition 


196  LIFE    AND    WRITINGS    OF 

of  slaves,  and  of  securing  their  freedom,  is  to  preach  the  gos- 
pel both  to  masters  and  slaves.  If  abolitionism  could  prevail 
generally,  among  ministers,  the  gospel  would  be  wholly 
removed  from  the  slaveholding  States ;  and  the  condition  of 
the  slaves  would  become  unspeakably  worse  than  it  has  ever 
been.  Practically  there  are  no  enemies  to  the  slaves  whom 
they  have  so  much  reason  to  dread,  as  the  men  who  would 
take  from  them  the  light  and  hopes  of  the  gospel,  and  leave 
them  in  the  hands  of  men  wholly  destitute  of  its  beneficent 
influence." 

It  would  be  hard  to  express  more  untruths  in  as  many 
words.  There  are  five  sentences  in  the  above  extract,  and 
there  are  five  distinct  falsehoods.  The  second  sentence  con- 
tains two:  "The  Bible  is  no  rule  for  its  advocates,  and  the 
good  of  slaves  is  no  part  of  its  aim."  The  Bible  is  the  rule 
of  the  class  of  abolitionists  referred  to,  and  the  good  of  slaves 
is  a  main  part  of  their  aim.  The  declaration  that  "  all  admit 
that  the  apostles  preached  without  hesitation  to  just  such 
churches  as  the  committee  refuse  to  aid,"  is  a  stupendous 
falsehood.  "All  admit"  no  such  thing.  There  is  not  an 
impartial  Christian  in  the  land,  who  has  thoroughly  investi- 
gated the  subject,  that  admits  that  the  apostles  ever  preached 
to  churches  that  received  habitual  and  unrepentant  slave- 
holders. There  is  not  one  jot  or  tittle  of  evidence  to  show 
that  they  did,  but  a  mass  of  overwhelming  evidence  to  prove 
they  did  not.  The  declaration,  that  if  abolitionism  could 
prevail  the  gospel  would  be  taken  from  the  slave  States,  is 
utterly  false,  and  Dr.  Bice  knows  it.  He  has  lived  in  Ken- 
tucky and  knows  that  the  abolitionists  have  been  preaching 
the  gospel  there,  amid  persecution  and  reproach,  for  years. 
He  knows  moreover,  that  they  have  tried  earnestly  to  intro- 
duce the  gospel  into  North  Carolina  and  other  slaveholding 
States,  and  that  they  have  endured  all  manner  of  persecution 
in  the  effort. 

All  that  the  Christian  antislavery  men  of  this  country  have 
opposed  in  this  matter,  is  the  preaching  to  slaves  and  masters 
of  that  false  and  spurious  gospel  which  teaches  that  the  Bible 
sanctions  slavery.  They  regard  such  preaching  as  a  libel  on 
Christianity,  and  an  unmitigated  curse  to  master  and  slave. 
But  they  have  done  what  they  could  to  send  the  pure  gospel 
of  Jesus  to  the  South.  The  work  to  which  Christ  declares  he 
was  specially  anointed  was  "  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor, 
to  heal  the  broken-hearted,  to  preach  deliverance  to  the  cap- 
tives, and  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised."     This  true 


REV.   JOSEPH    GORDON.  197 

and  loving  gospel  the  abolitionists  would  preach  all  over  the 
South,  were  it  not  that  infidels,  like  Dr.  Rice,  in  the  church, 
and  ruffians  in  the  world,  combine  to  drive  their  missionaries 
away. 


Injustice  to  the  Dead. 

A  work  has  been  recently  published  by  the  Rev.  Joseph 
Smith,  D.  D.,  giving  a  history  of  the  rise  and  growth  of  the 
Presbyterian  churches  of  Western  Pennsylvania.  This  work 
has  been  made  the  text  of  a  long  article  in  the  St.  Louis 
Presbyterian  on  the  same  subject.  After  sketching  the  lives 
and  labors  of  the  prominent  ministers  of  that  period,  the 
writer  in  the  St.  Louis  paper  remarks  that  "  several  character- 
istics of  the  times  and  the  men  who  founded  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  Western  Pennsylvania,  deserve  bright  notice." 
The  first  of  these  "  characteristics  "  was  the  abundance  of  the 
labors  of  the  ministers  of  that  period.  The  second  charac- 
teristic, which  we  are  told  "  deserves  bright  notice,"  we  give 
in  the  words  of  the  writer,  and  of  Dr.  Smith,  whom  he 
quotes  : 

"  2.  But  what  will  doubtless  startle  a  class  of  good  people, 
is  the  fact  that  most  of  the  early  ministers  in  Western  Penn- 
sylvania were  slaveholders !  We  let  their  historian  tell  the 
story.     (Page  274.) 

"  '  The  plain,  frugal  habits  of  the  times  did  not  impose  upon 
the  ministers  then  the  necessity  of  any  thing  further  than 
the  cheapest  furniture  and  the  plainest  style  of  living.  Most 
of  them  assisted  in  much  of  the  work  that  was  done  on  their 
farms.  With  but  one  or  two  exceptions  they  owned  colored 
servants,  both  male  and  female,  who  were  carefully  instructed 
and  kindly  treated.  Most  of  these  servants  were  members 
of  the  church.  This  statement  may  surprise  some  readers, 
and,  if  they  are  abolitionists,  will  be  rather  an  unwelcome 
piece  of  information,  but  it  was  truly  so.  At  least  six  of  the 
early  ministers,  and  almost  all  their  elders,  were  slaveholders. 
We  never  heard  that  their  consciences  were  disturbed  on  the 
subject.  They  provided  well  for  their  servants,  and  those 
born  after  1780,  were,  in  due  time,  entitled  to  the  benefit  of 
the  act  passed  that  year  by  the  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania, 
'for  the  gradual  abolition  of  slavery.'  " 

Now,  why  do  not  Mr.  Smith  and  his  annotator  tell  the 


198  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

whole  story?  Why  do  they  not  tell  iis  that  these  same  min- 
isters, whose  memories  they  venerate,  were  also  whisky 
makers  and  whisky  drinkers  ?  Such  was  really  the  fact. 
Almost  every  farm  in  Western  Pennsylvania  had  at  that  time 
a  distillery,  and  the  use  of  whisky  was  universal.  Preacher 
and  layman,  saint  and  sinner,  alike  used  it  habitually. 
Drunkenness  was  common,  and  even  the  ministers  sometimes 
drank  to  the  verge  of  intoxication.  Western  Pennsylvania 
was  the  seat  of  the  famous  "  Whisky  Insurrection."  This 
Insurrection  was  only  quelled  by  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment marching  an  army  cf  fifteen  thousand  men  to  the  scene 
of  the  rebellion,  and  not  by  the  minister's  reasoning,  in  imi- 
tation of  Paul,  of  '■'■temperance^  righteousness  and  a  judgment 
to  come."  These  pioneer  ministers  had  no  penchant  for  such 
"reasoning"  so  far  as  "temperance"  was  concerned,  for 
authentic  legends  tell  us  that  some  of  them  dearly  loved  the 
"  good  creature." 

This  the  historian  might  have  recorded  with  as  much  pro- 
priety as  the  fact  that  these  men  were  slaveholders.  And  if 
their  example  proves  any  thing  for  slavery,  it  proves  as  much, 
or  more,  for  whisky  guzzling. 

But  it  did  not  suit  Dr.  Smith's  purpose  to  tell  the  whole 
truth.  Whisky  drinking  and  vulgarity  are  now  regarded  as 
rather  low  and  disreputable  vices.  But  slavery  is  the  corner 
stone  of  our  "Republican  Institutions,"  and  of  our  large 
ecclesiastical  organizations.  It  has  been  pronounced  by  the 
Assembly  of  the  0.  S.  Presbyterian  Church,  to  be  the  bond 
of  their  union — the  very  cement  that  holds  the  stones  of 
their  Zion  together ;  for  they  declare  in  so  many  words  that 
to  put  it  out  of  their  church  "would  be  to  dissolve  their 
organization."  Moreover,  unless  common  fame  does  Dr. 
Smith  outrageous  injustice,  his  own  fingers  have  handled  the 
price  of  the  bones  and  souls  and  unpaid  toil  of  some  of  his 
fellow-men.  Hence  the  example  of  the  fathers  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  Western  Pennsylvania  is  quoted  in  favor 
of  the  practice  of  slaveholding.  This  "  peculiar  institution  " 
is  covered  with  the  shining  mantle  of  the  real  or  supposed 
piety  of  these  venerable  men,  and  thus  commended  to  our 
admiration,  in  order  that  their  sons  in  this  day  may  justify 
themselves  for  their  complicity  in  this  horrible  system. 

This  conduct  of  Dr.  Smith  is  a  foul  injustice  to  the  dead. 
They  lived  in  a  period  of  profound  ignorance,  or  of  utter 
thoughtlessness  in  regard  to  the  evils  of  slavery  and  drunk- 
enness, apd  at  a,  timp  when  the  refinejnenta  and  amenities  of 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  199 

our  present  social  life  were  utterly  ignored.  "  The  times  of 
this  ignorance,"  we  would  charitably  hope,  "  God  winked  at." 
Their  education  and  the  spirit  of  the  times  in  which  they 
lived,  may  palliate,  if  they  will  not  entirely  excuse  in  these 
men  what  would  be  utterly  intolerable  in  their  descendants. 
But  to  tear  oiF  this  mantle,  which  that  charity  which  covers  a 
multitude  of  sins,  would  throw  over  these  dark  spots  in  their 
lives,  and  hold  up  their  deformities  to  the  gaze  of  posterity, 
is  a  work  which  does  no  credit  to  the  head  or  heart  of  Dr. 
Smith.  The  time  is  not  far  distant  when  the  fact  that  they 
were  slaveholders  will  be  as  carefully  concealed  as  the  fact 
that  they  made  and  drank  whisky.  But  to  hold  up  their 
example  as  a  barrier  to  that  tremendous  tide  of  opposition  to 
slavery  now  setting  in,  is  dishonorable  alike  to  the  living  and 
the  dead. 


Slavery  in  the  Old  School  General  Assembly. 

The  vexed  question  was  brought  before  this  body  by  the 
Congregational  delegate  from  Maine.  The  moderator  of  the 
Assembly  responded,  and  the  reporters  placed  him  in  a  false 
position.     The  following  is  his  explanation  : 

"  The  moderator  (Eev.  Francis  McFarland,  D.  D.,  of  the 
Presbytery  of  Lexington,  Va.,)  said:  I  beg  to  be  indulged 
in  a  few  remarks  upon  a  subject  in  which  I  am  peculiarly 
interested.  Last  evening  I  was  greatly  surprised  to  find  in 
the  Commercial  Advertiser  of  this  city  a  report  of  my  remarks 
made  yesterday  in  response  to  the  delegate  from  Maine,  in 
which  I  am  made  to  say  :  '  As  to  slavery,  Sir,  I  never  heard 
remarks  upon  the  evils  of  the  system  which  I  could  not  sub- 
scribe to.'  [Laughter.]  The  Assembly  will  bear  witness 
that  I  never  uttered  such  a  sentence.  Had  I  uttered  such  a 
sentence  the  Assembly  would  have  taken  me  out  of  this  chair. 
Had  I  been  considered  capable  of  uttering  such  a  sentence 
the  Assembly  would  never  have  placed  me  in  this  chair.  If 
it  were  believed  that  any  minister  had  uttered  this  sentiment 
it  would  destroy  his  influence  in  the  South  " 

"  Dr.  Prime. — And  in  the  North,  too,  Sir." 

Dr.  McFarland  also  published  a  card  in  the  Commercial 
Advertiser  correcting  the  blunder  of  the  reporters.  Alluding 
to  the  above  sentiment  which  they  had  put  in  his  mouth,  he 
says  : 


200  LIFE   AND    WRITINGS    OF 

"  The  moderator  never  uttered  such  a  sentiment — it  would 
constitute  him  an  abolitionist  of  the  first  class,  from  the 
principles  of  whom  he  utterly  dissents.  He  expressed  no 
opinion  of  his  own,  but  said  '  that  he  was  extensively 
acquainted  in  the  Southern  States,  and  that  he  never  met 
with  man  or  woman  who  did  not  admit  that  slavery  was  an 
evil,  till  the  Abolition  controversy  drove  them  in  self-defense 
to  take  different  ground.'  " 

Can  pro-slavery  truckling  go  beyond  this?  Had  the  mod- 
erator been  capable  of  assenting  to  remarks  on  the  evils  of 
slavery  he  would  have  been  taken  out  of  the  moderator's 
chair.  Had  he  been  considered  capable  of  uttering  a  convic- 
tion that  slavery  is  an  evil,  he  would  never  have  been  placed 
in  that  chair.  To  admit  that  slavery  is  an  evil  is  a  bar  to  all 
promotion  in  the  Old  School  General  Assembly.  This  state- 
ment is  made  from  the  moderator's  chair,  and  so  far  as  appears, 
not  a  tongue  is  lifted  in  dissent  to  the  disgraceful  statement. 
But  then  it  is  consistent  with  the  position  of  that  Assembly 
since  1845.  They  then  declared  slavery  to  be  their  corner- 
stone and  bond  of  union,  and,  of  course,  no  one  should  be 
permitted  to  breathe  one  syllable  of  opposition  to  the  pecu- 
liar institution.  To  doubt  its  Divine  origin  and  holy  charac- 
ter is  to  strike  at  the  foundation  of  the  General  Assembly ; 
and  if  a  man,  capable  of  such  treason  to  slavery,  should,  by 
mistake,  get  into  the  moderator's  chair,  he  must  expect  so 
soon  as  the  mistake  is  discovered,  to  be  dragged  out  in  double 
quick  time  !  The  Old  School  General  Assembly  is  becoming 
more  and  more  besotted  in  its  devotion  to  slavery,  year  by 
year.  It  is  literally  "  drunk  with  the  wine  of  the  wrath  of 
the  fornication  "  of  this  great  American  harlot.  How  much 
longer  will  Christian  people  adhere  to  such  a  reprobate  body? 

The  statement  which  Dr.  McFarland  did  make,  though  very 
old  and  stale,  is  very  peculiar  and  intensely  foolish.  What 
he  did  say  was,  that  he  never  met  a  man  or  woman  in  the 
South,  "  who  did  not  admit  that  slavery  was  an  evil,  till  the 
abolition  controversy  drove  them,  in  self-defense,  to  take  dif- 
ferent ground."  That  is,  they  admitted  that  slavery  was  an 
evil  until  the  abolitionists  of  the  North  arose  and  agreed  with 
them  in  that  admission,  and  urged  them  to  put  the  admitted 
evil  away!  Then,  in  self-defense,  they  changed  ground,  ate 
their  own  words,  stoutly  denied  that  slavery  was  an  evil  at  all, 
and  began  to  swear  by  it  as  a  household  god  !  And  this  state- 
ment is  solemnly  put  forth  before  a  grave  assembly  of  doctors 
of  divinity  and  others,  apparently  without  a  suspicion  that  it 


REV.   JOSEPH    <iORDON.  201 

represents  the  men  and  women  of  the  South  as  both  knaves 
and  fools.  Dr.  McFarland,  of  course,  would  have  us  believe 
that  they  were  both  honest  and  intelligent  in  formerly  admit- 
ting that  slavery  is  an  evil.  Did  the  rise  of  the  abolition 
controversy,  then,  change  the  character  of  slavery?  Is  not 
the  present  denial  by  Southern  men  and  women  that  slavery 
is  an  evil,  both  foolish  and  dishonest?  Or  did  the  magic 
wand  of  the  abolitionists  touch  the  unclean  devil  of  slavery, 
and  transform  it  into  an  angel  of  light?  If  the  abolitionists 
have  performed  this  miraculous  service  for  the  slaveholders, 
in  all  gratitude  they  should  cease  to  curse  them.  Just  look 
at  the  position  in  which  the  statement  of  Dr.  McFarland  puts 
the  Southern  people.  There  are  men  and  women  who  freely 
admit  to  the  world  and  to  themselves  that  slavery  is  a  great 
evil.  A  society  of  men  and  women  is  formed  in  the  North 
who  say  to  them.  Yes,  brethren  and  sisters  of  the  South, 
slavery  is  undoubtedly  a  great  evil,  and  now  we  propose  to  do 
what  we  can,  in  a  friendly  manner,  to  help  you  put  it  away. 
Let  us  set  about  the  great  work  of  abolishing  this  admitted 
evil  at  once.  But  pi*esto !  change !  The  words  of  these 
Northern  ianatics,  or  rather  their  repetition  of  Southern 
words,  has  instantly  changed  the  whole  aspect  of  the  case. 
The  Southern  people  at  once  rise  up  and  say,  "  You  Northern 
fanatics  are  meddling  with  what  you  do  not  understand. 
Slavery  is  not  an  evil.  It  is  a  divine  institution.  '  It  is  the 
corner-stone  of  our  republican  institutions.'  Our  churches 
are  based  on  the  conceded  principle,  that  it  is  no  bar  to  Chris- 
tian communion.  Away  with  your  intermeddling  !  In  'self- 
defense  '  we  take  back  our  former  admission,  and  affirm  that 
to  be  good  which  before  we  freely  and  honestly  admitted  to 
be  evil."  It  is  surely  time  that  men  should  cease  uttering 
such  transparent  folly. 

The  Dr.  Prime  who  holds,  as  reported  above,  that  a  man 
will  lose  his  influence  in  the  North  by  declaring  slavery  an 
evil,  is  the  editor  of  the  New  York  Observer,  the  "  Satanic 
press  "  of  the  religious  world. 


Misdirection  of  Antislavery  Effort. 

It  is  a  curious  and  undeniable  fact,  that  the  success  of  the 
Slave  Power,  in  this  country,  in  its  aggressions  upon  freedom, 
has  kept  pace  with  the  growth  of  the  antislavery  sentiment. 

18 


202  LIFE  AND   WHITINGS    OF 

The  acquisition  of  Texas,  the  Mexican  War,  the  enactment 
of  the  Fugitive  Shtve  Act,  and  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise, have  all  transpired  since  the  commencement  of  the 
antislavery  movement.  The  abolitionists  have  for  years  been 
more  numerous  than  the  slaveholders.  In  1848  they  polled 
300,000  votes,  while  the  whole  number  of  slave-owners  in  the 
country,  including  men,  women  and  children,  does  not  exceed 
250,000.  Yet  the  two  worst  acts  of  slaveholding  tyranny — 
the  passage  of  the  fugitive  bill,  and  the  Nebraska  swindle — 
have  been  perpetrated  since  that  time.  What  adds  to  our 
surprise  in  contemplating  this  phenomenon,  is  the  fact,  that 
the  abolitionists  had  all  the  advantages  of  having  truth  and 
conscience  on  their  side,  while  the  slaveholders  have  been 
warring  against  both. 

It  will  be  both  instructive  and  profitable,  if  wo  can  ascer- 
tain the  true  cause  of  this  phenomenon.  Without  further 
preliminary,  we  state  our  belief  that  one  principal  cause  has 
been,  the  misdirection  of  antislavery  effort.  The  movement, 
of  late  years  at  least,  has  been  too  exclusively  political.  It 
has  aimed  at  the  defeat  and  destruction  of  the  slave  power 
through  party  tactics  and  political  machinery.  The  strong- 
hold of  the  system  of  slavery  has  not  been  much  disturbed, 
but  the  strength  of  the  hosts  of  freedom  has  been  wasted  in 
skirmishing  attacks  upon  its  outposts.  And  hence,  with  the 
advantages  of  superior  numbers,  and  a  righteous  cause  upon 
their  side,  they  have  been  generally  defeated.  A  few  points 
in  regard  to  this  matter,  arc  perfectly  clear  to  our  mind : 

1.  Slavery  lives  and  liourishes  in  this  country  because  the 
public  sentiment  of  the  nation  either  approves  of  it,  or  is 
indifferent.  The  great  majority  of  men  are  governed  by  the 
opinions  and  sentiments  of  others,  and  all  are  to  some  extent 
influenced  thereby.  There  are  a  few  who  make  the  law  of 
God  the  supreme  rule  of  their  conduct,  but  the  vast  majority 
shape  their  course  by  the  popular  will.  Hence  the  surest 
way  to  compass  the  overthrow  of  any  existing  custom  or  insti- 
tution is  to  make  it  unpopular.  "  Better  out  of  the  world 
than  out  of  the  fashion,"  is  the  motto  of  millions.  It  is  true 
that  with  a  strong  sense  of  duty  and  of  the  favor  of  God  in 
their  hearts,  men  may  and  do  brave  the  terrors  of  an  opposing 
public  sentiment.  But  it  is  even  then  the  hardest  enemy 
with  which  flesh  and  blood  ever  grapples.  No  doubt  the 
stake  and  the  fire  are  less  terrible  to  the  martyr,  than  the 
concentrated  scorn  and  contempt  of  his  fellow-men.  Mere 
animal  courage  can  brave   the  former,  but  nothing  eavc  the 


REV.   JOSEPH    GORDON.  203 

sustaining  grace  of  God  can  nerve  the  heart  to  overcome  the 
latter. 

It  follows  that  when  men  have  not  this  deep  consciousness 
of  Divine  favor  to  sustain  them,  they  will  abandon  any  prac- 
tice against  which  a  determined  and  hostile  public  opinion 
can  be  concentrated.  Now  no  men  know  better  than  the 
slaveholders,  that  their  system  is  inherently  wicked ;  an 
abomination  to  God,  and  a  loathing  to  all  good  men.  Hence, 
having  no  inward  consciousness  of  rectitude  to  sustain  them, 
they  will  give  up  their  oppression  just  so  soon  as  it  can  be 
made  thoroughly  and  universally  unpopular. 

2.  In  the  second  place,  the  great  agencies  which  create  and 
direct  public  sentiment  in  this  country,  are  the  Church,  the 
School,  and  last,  but  not  least,  the  Press.  This  proposition 
scarcely  admits  of  a  doubt.  The  political  party  may  have 
some  influence  in  molding  the  opinions  of  the  people,  but 
the  politicians  are  much  more  frequently  the  followers  than 
the  leaders  of  public  sentiment.  Let  the  Church  put  the  ban 
of  her  reprobation  upon  slavery  by  refusing  to  receive  those 
in  the  practice  of  it  to  membership.  Let  the  schools  incul- 
cate the  love  of  freedom,  and  the  hatred  of  oppression  in  the 
minds  of  the  young;  and  let  the  press  speak  out  in  tones  of 
stern  denunciation  of  the  great  crime,  and  there  is  no  polit- 
ical party  on  earth  that  could  sustain  it  one  hour.  Slavery 
is  made  respectable  by  taking  it  into  the  church,  b}'  teaching 
its  divinity  in  the  school  (especially  the  theological  semin- 
ary), and  by  marshaling  prostituted  presses  to  its  support. 
The  slaveholders  understand  this  well.  Hence  their  unceas- 
ing vigilance  in  seeking  the  control  of  the  great  church 
organizations  of  the  country,  in  expurgating  every  word  of 
antislavery  sentiment  from  the  school-books,  and  in  pension- 
ing the  most  influential  presses  in  the  land  to  speak  in  praise 
of  their  institution. 

3.  It  follows  from  this,  that  so  long  as  slavery  is  fellow- 
shiped  in  the  Church,  and  so  long  as  our  schools  and  presses 
are  the  nurseries  of  proslavery  sentiments,  slavery  will  retain 
its  respectability,  and  its  power  to  rule  in  the  State.  It  is 
perfectly  idle  to  talk  of  denationalizing  slavery,  until  it  is 
unchurched.  It  is  the  hight  of  folly  to  talk  of  preventing  its 
ingress  into  the  territories,  while  it  has  a  free  passage  into  the 
sanctuary  of  God.  It  is  worse  than  folly  to  try  to  cast  it  out 
of  the  political  party,  so  long  as  a  seat  is  freely  accorded  to  it 
at  the  communion  table. 

This  is  the  highest  sanction  that  can  be  given  to  any  human 


204  LIFE   AND    WRITINGS    OF 

practice  or  institution.  The  holiest  place  on  earth  is  the 
table  of  the  Lord,  It  is  there  the  disciple  makes  the  nearest 
approacli  to  the  communion  of  the  upper  temple  ;  and  that 
which  does  not  disqualify  for  a  seat  at  the  Lord's  table  on 
earth,  does  not  disqualify  for  a  place  in  heaven. 

But  the  practice  of  all  the  large  and  wealthy  church  organ- 
izations is  to  receive  slaveholders  freely  to  communion.  There 
is  not  a  case  on  record,  that  we  know  of,  in  which  the  mere 
fact  of  owning  human  beings  has  been  made  a  ground  of 
exclusion  from  church-fellowship  in  the  Methodist,  Baptist, 
Episcopalian,  or  either  large  branch  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church.  All  the  talent,  moral  worth,  influence  and  piety  of 
these  large  ecclesiastical  bodies  are  thrown  around  the  institu- 
tion to  make  it  respectable.  To  expect  therefore,  to  break 
the  dominion  of  slavery,  and  ultimately  to  abolish  it  by  polit- 
ical action,  so  long  as  it  is  sustained  by  these  other  influences, 
is  as  idle  as  to  expect  to  kill  the  tree  by  lopping  ofl"  a  few  of 
its  branches. 

4.  There  is  another  consideration  which  should  show  the 
folly  of  expecting  to  abolish  or  even  restrain  slavery  by  mere 
political  means.  The  slaveholders  enjoy  an  undisputed  supe- 
riority over  Northern  men  in  political  cunning  and  manage- 
ment. Politics  is  a  'profession  in  the  South.  Being  free  fi'om 
the  necessity  of  labor,  the  slaveholders  make  it  their  constant 
study.  They  are  familiar  with  all  schemes  of  political  in- 
trigue ;  they  understand  all  the  crooked  mazes  of  party  tactics  ; 
and  are  perfectly  at  home  in  managing  the  wii'es  by  which 
the  machinery  is  directed  and  controlled.  In  addition  to  thia 
they  are  completely  united  on  this  question,  and  work  in  per- 
fect harmony.  To  expect,  therefore,  to  beat  them  at  their  own 
game,  is  vain.  The  antislavery  men  of  this  country  consti- 
tute the  great  majority  of  the  honorable  and  truly  upright 
men.  AVere  the  intrigue  and  corruption  by  which  the  politi- 
cal aifairs  of  this  country  are  mostly  managed,  weapons  which 
they  could  lawfully  use,  they  must  yet  be  beaten  at  this  game 
by  those  who  have  made  it  their  constant  and  earnest  study. 

It  is  true  that  we  advocate  political  action  on  the  subject  of 
slavery.  But  it  is  political  action  based  upon,  and  growing 
out  of  high  moral  and  religious  conviction.  A  political  action 
which  instead  of  shuftling,  equivocating  and  compromising, 
will  assert  and  maintain  the  absolute  right,  as  the  only  true 
policy  of  government.  But  such  a  political  action  will  spring 
naturally  from  the  moral  and  religious  regeneration  of  the 
people.     Hence  it  is  unwise  and  injurious  for  the  opponents 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  205 

of  slavery  to  devote  their  strongest  eiForts  to  mere  political 
measures,  to  the  neglect  of  that  which  is  higher  and  more 
essential. 

There  is  yet  one  other  f^ict  which  in  connection  with  those 
already  stated,  goes  far  to  explain  the  comparative  failure  of 
political  abolitionism  :  That  is,  that  many  of  those  who  are 
most  active  in  the  political  movement,  are  holding  religious 
fellowship  with  slavery.  The  inconsistency  (to  use  no  harsher 
term)  of  this  is'  so  great,  that  it  must  weaken  and  paralyze 
any  cause  in  which  they  are  prominent. 

The  great  want  of  the  antislavery  cause  is  a  moral  earth- 
quake among  the  pro-slavery  churches  of  the  country.  Let 
the  Church  be  shaken  and  purified,  let  the  moral  and  religious 
sentiments  of  the  people  be  thoroughly  reformed,  and  the 
politics  will  take  care  of  themselves.  The  oft-quoted  saying 
of  Albert  Barnes  will  then  be  verified  :  "  That  there  is  no 
power  out  of  the  Church  which  could  sustain  slavery  one  hour, 
if  it  were  not  sustained  in  it." 

If  these  things  are  so,  there  can  be  no  difficulty  in  deter- 
mining to  what  point  the  efforts  ^of  the  enemies  of  slavery 
should  be  mainly  directed. 


"  No  Apology  for  Schism." 

The  editor  of  the  Presbyterian  of  the  West^  alluding  to  our 
article  on  his  controversy  with  Dr.  Kice,  says  of  our  humble 
self  and  others : 

"  He  and  others  of  his  chui'ch,  have  no  other  apology  for 
schism  but  the  action  .of  1845,  and  they  are  not  to  be  easily 
brought  back." 

Our  cotemporary  is  as  wide  of  the  mark  in  this  statement 
as  he  is  in  his  efforts  to  harmonize  the  action  of  1818  and  of 
1845.  He  never  was  more  mistaken  in  his  life.  The  action 
of  1845  is  the  smallest  part  of  our  "  apology  for  schisms." 
(Let  the  reader  take  notice  that  in  the  vocabulary  of  modern 
doctors  of  divinity,  the  word  schism  stands  for  practical  obe- 
dience to  the  command,  "  Have  no  fellowship  with  the 
unfruitful  works  of  darkness.")  If  the  action  of  1845  were 
repealed  this  day,  and  that  of  1818  reenacted  in  its  ".tead,  we 
would  have  substantially  the  same  reasons  for  separation  from 
the  Old  School  Presbyterian  Church  that  we  now  have. 

The  conduct  of  a  church  as  of  a  person,  is  immensely  more 


206  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OP 

important  than  its  professions.  It  is  on  account  of  what  the 
slaveholding  churches  of  this  country  rfo,  far  more  than  on 
account  of  what  they  saij^  that  separation  from  them  is  duty. 
Practlcalljj  it  is  all  one  whether  slavery  is  approved  or  cen- 
sured in  words  by  the  Old  School  Presbyterian  Church.  The 
simple  fjict  is  that  all  kinds  of  slaveholders  are  received  freely 
into  that  church.  The  avaricious  and  the  benevolent,  the 
cruel  and  the  merciful,  alike  enjoy  the  fullest  toleration.  This 
is  the  explicit  testimony  of  Southern  Presbyterrans  themselves. 
We  gave  in  our  last  article  on  this  subject  the  testimony  of 
Rev.  James  Smylie,  an  Old  School  Presbyterian  minister  in 
good  and  regular  standing,  that  three-fourths  of  all  the  Pres- 
byterians, Baptists,  Methodists  and  Episcopalians  of  the 
Southern  States,  buy,  sell,  own  and  work  slaves  for  gain,  and 
hunt  them  when  they  run  away,  for  the  same  end.  The  whole 
Synod  of  Kentucky  testify,  that  brutal  stripes  are  inflicted  by 
church-members  on  their  slaves,  and  that  "  cases  have  occurred 
in  their  own  denomination  in  which  professors  of  the  religion 
of  mercy  have  sold  the  mother  from  her  children,  and  sent 
her  into  merciless  and  returnless  exile,  and  yet  no  discipline 
followed."  We  have  a  volume  of  testimony  to  the  same  efiect. 
Now,  while  such  is  the  practice  of  the  Church,  it  matters  very 
little  what  is  its  profession.  A  thoroughly  antislavery  testi- 
mony from  a  church  guilty  of  such  crime  in  practice,  would 
only  expose  her  to  the  charge  of  inconsistency  and  hypocrisy. 

This  is  the  kind  of  slaveholding  which  the  Assembly  of 
1845  declared  to  be  no  bar  to  Christian  communion.  No 
amount  of  ingenuity  or  Jesuitism  can  make  their  resolutions 
mean  anything  else.  No  torture  of  the  English  language  can 
extract  from  them  any  other  signification.  They  say  that 
'•'■slavery  as  it  exists  in  the  Southern  poriion  of  the  country  ^i^  no 
bar  to  Christian  communion."  Not  slavery  divested  of  all  its 
offensive  and  criminal  features,  but  slavery  as  it  is,  with  all  its 
actual  robbery,  cruelty  and  uncleanness. 

To  say,  as  does  the  Presbyterian  of  the  West,  that  the  object 
and  effect  of  the  action  of  1845  was  merely  to  condemn  the 
abolition  doctrine  that  slaveholding  without  regard  to  circum- 
stances should  be  a  cause  of  discipline,  is  sheer  folly,  for  no 
abolitionist  that  we  ever  heard  of  holds  such  a  doctrine.  We 
hold  that  it  is  sometimes  a  man's  solemn  duty  to  become  a 
slaveholder,  if  becoming  the  legal  owner  of  slaves  makes  him 
one.  For  example,  a  few  years  ago  James  Gr.  Birney  became 
the  owner  of  a  number  of  slaves  by  inheritance.  He  accepted 
the  ownership,  and  immediately  commenced  the  work  of  set- 


REV.  JOSEPH    GORDON.  207 

ting  them  free.  But  days  and  probably  weeks  elapsed  before 
the  legal  forms  necessary  could  be  eseeuted,  and  the  work 
accomplished.  During  those  weeks  Mr.  Birney  was  techni- 
cally a  slaveholder.  He  owned  slaves  by  the  laws  of  Kentucky, 
and  could  have  sold  all  his  possessions  if  he  had  chosen  to  do 
so.  Now,  we  never  heard  of  an  abolitionist  who  condemned 
Mr.  Birney's  conduct  in  this  matter.  They  all  hold  that  he 
not  only  acted  innocently,  but  discharged  an  imperative  duty. 
Yet  there  was  guilt  somewhere  even  in  reference  to  his  slaves. 
The  makers  and  upholders  of  the  laws  which  made  them  his 
property  were  guilty,  although  he  was  innocent  in  accepting 
the  ownership. 

To  affirm  that  the  Assembly  of  1845  merely  meant  to  say 
that  such  slaveholding  as  that  of  Mr.  Birney,  should  not  be  a 
subject  of  discipline,  is  simply  absurd.  Nobody  ever  con- 
tended that  it  should  be.  The  Assembly  were  doing  a  work 
of  foolish  supererogation  if  that  was  their  sole  object.  But 
no  man  in  his  senses  who  reads  the  document  of  1845,  can 
believe  any  such  thing.  It  was  the  selfish  and  wicked  slave- 
holding,  in  which  Rev.  James  Smiley  declares  three-fourths  of 
the  Presbyterians  of  the  South  are  engaged,  which  they  meant 
to  say,  and  which  they  did  say,  was  no  bar  to  Christian  com- 
munion, the  editor  of  the  Preshyterian  of  the  West^  to  the  con- 
trary, notwithstanding.  Our  cotemporary,  we  meekly  suggest, 
is  writing  too  much  on  this  subject.  He  is  in  danger  of 
repeating  the  trick  which  has  made  the  name  of  Dogberry 
immortal,  if  he  continues  to  write  until  he  understands  the 
subject  better. 


"  Candid  Answers." 

The  Free  Pre&hytcrian  copies  our  article  entitled  "  Choos- 
ing Slavery,"  and  appends  an  answer.     We  said  : 

"  The  queries  of  our  cotemporary  of  the  Presbyterian  of 
the  West  are  certainly  pertinent  and  pointed.  But  there  are 
a  few  other  questions  which  may  be  asked,  which,  perhaps, 
might  prove  as  embarrassing  to  him  as  his  must  be  to  his 
Virginia  brother.  For  instance :  1.  Did  not  his  General 
Assembly  resolve  in  1845,  that  it  'was  organized  on  the  con- 
ceded principle  that  the  existence  of  domestic  slavery,  under 
the  circumstances  in  which  it  is  found  in  the  Southern  por- 
tion of  the  country,  is  no  bar  to  Christian  communion  ?  ' 
2.  Are  not  the  so-called  laws  by  which  these  men  are  sold 


208  LIFE    AND    WRITINGS    OF 

into  slavery,  and  the  public  sentiment  that  enacts  and  exe- 
cutes such  statutes,  some  of  '  the  circumstances  in  which 
slavery  is  found  in  the  Southern  portion  of  the  country  ? ' 
3.  Suppose  a  minister  of  the  Old  School  Presbyterian  Church 
should  preach  a  sermon  justifying  the  infamous  laws  of  Vir- 
ginia on  this  subject,  and  should  then  purchase  the  two  men 
alluded  to  above,  when  the  State  puts  them  up  at  auction, 
would  his  conduct  in  the  case  compromise  his  standing  as  a 
minister  in  the  least  degree?  and  is  there  the  slightest  prob- 
ability that  his  Presbytery,  Synod  or  General  Assembly  would 
censure  him?  4.  Would  not  the  State  of  Virginia  and  the 
Presbyterian  minister  in  this  case  be  giiilty  of  the  very  crime 
which  God  commanded  to  be  punished  with  death,  when  he 
said,  '  He  that  stealeth  a  man  and  selleth  him,  or  if  he  be 
found  in  his  hands,  he  shall  surely  be  put  to  death  ?  '  5.  If 
the  editor  of  the  Preshyierian  of  the  ^Yest  were  a  delegate  to 
the  General  Assembly  of  his  church,  which  meets  in  Lex- 
ington, Ky.,  this  month,  would  he  not  meet  in  council  and 
eat  the  Lord's  Supper  with  ministers  and  elders  who  have 
bought  and  hold  in  their  hands  men  who  have  been  stolen 
and  sold  by  somebody?  6.  Is  it  consistent  with  the  old 
adage  about  folks  that  live  in  glass  houses  for  a  man  in  his 
position  to  throw  stones  at  his  brother  editor  of  Virginia  ? 
We  should  be  very  glad  to  have  cdndid  answers  from  the 
editor  of  the  Preshyterian  of  tlie  ^yest  to  these  questions." 

That  paper  replies : 

These  questions  are  by  no  means  "embarrassing,"  and  our 
answers  shall  be  "  candid  "  in  every  sense. 

1.  The  resolution  of  the  Assembly  of  1845,  quoted  above, 
is  understood  to  not  refer  to  the  law  of  slavery,  but  to  such 
slaveholding  as  existed  in  the  Church  in  the  South.  The 
Assembly  do  not  approve  slavery  or  slave  laws  in  that  resolu- 
tion, much  less  any  of  the  cruelties  of  slaver3^  We  have 
already  said  that  Dr.  Lord  of  Bufialo,  is  the  author  of  the 
resolution  referred  to,  and  we  have,  moreover,  intimated  that 
we  would  have  been  better  suited  if  that  resolution  had  said 
"  slaveholding  as  it  prevails  in  our  church  in  the  South." 
We  do  not  believe  that  slaveholdinp",  as  it  existed  in  our 
church  in  the  South,  should  have  hindered  the  organization 
of  the  Assembly,  nor  that  it  should  lead  to  a  division  of  the 
church.  We  depend  upon  the  church  in  the  South  more 
than  any  other  agency  to  bring  slavery  to  an  end. 

2.  The  circumstances  in  which  slaveholding  exists  in  our 
church  are  not  such  as  that  the   church  is  the   apologist  or 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  209 

bulwark  of  slavery ;  but.  on  the  contrary,  the  pledged  opposer 
and  destroyer  of  the  system  within  its  own  bounds,  and,  "  if 
possible,  throughout  the  civilized  world."  Before  and  since 
the  organization,  the  church  has  denounced  slavery  as  "  a 
grievous  wrong,"  "  a  gross  violation  of  the  most  sacred  rights 
of  human  nature,  utterly  inconsistent  with  the  word  of  God, 
and  totally  irreconcilable  with  the  spirit  and  principles  of  the 
gospel  of  Christ,"  and  this  has  never  as  yet  been  repealed. 

3.  Any  minister  in  our  church  who  will  justify  slavery,  or 
any  "  infamous  laws  "  on  that  subject,  we  believe  will  be  cen- 
sured. The  man  who  puts  slavery  in  the  same  category  with 
marriage,  as  a  heaven-ordained  institution,  to  be  perpetuated, 
will  be  censured.  There  is  not  the  "  slightest  probability  " 
that  he  can  escape  censure.  Men  who  would  buy  freemen 
wishing  to  be  sold  into  slavery,  we  presume  would  not  be 
censured  by  the  majority  of  our  church  rulers.  A  man's 
deep  abhorrence  of  slavery  might  dispose  him,  in  some  cir- 
cumstances, to  buy  a  slave  as  the  best  way  of  saving  him  from 
hopeless  bondage.  Such  things  have  often  occurred,  and  will, 
no  doubt,  happen  again. 

4.  The  State  of  Virginia  might  be  guilty  of  man-stealing 
in  the  case  alluded  to,  but  the  minister  might  be  guilty  in 
heart  of  no  greater  sin  in  buying  such  a  slave  than  adopting 
the  only  expedient  in  his  power  ibr  emancipation. 

5.  Yes  !  We  might,  and,  indeed,  we  presume  we  shall  *'  eat 
the  Lord's  Supper  with  ministers  and  elders  who  have  bought 
and  hold  in  their  hands  men  who  have  been  stolen  by  some- 
body." The  jjrima  facie  evidence  is  that  slaveholders  in  our 
church  abhor  the  system,  and  we  are  bound  to  treat  them  as 
if  this  were  the  case.  If  our  name  had  been  Simon  Peter, 
and  if  we  had  been  at  the  first  Lord's  Supper,  we  would  have 
eaten  with  Judas  Iscariot.  We  should  have  taken  for  granted 
that  he  was  a  good  man  until  we  found  it  otherwise.  We 
greatly  fear  that  there  are  in  our  church  some  whose  views 
of  slavery  are  such  as  to  deserve  excommunication,  but  we 
know  of  no  rule  by  which  we  can  treat  such  ''as  heathen  men 
and  publicans,"  until  we  have  obeyed  the  inspired  injunction, 
"  tell  it  to  the  church."  We  feel  bound  to  treat  all  in  the 
church  as  holding  and  practicing  with  our  church  on  slavery 
as  our  faith  and  practice  are  set  forth  in  the  public  deliver- 
ances of  our  chief  judicatory.  Schismatics  can  charge  men 
with  heresy  and  immorality  without  judicial  proceedings,  but 
we  have  not  so  learned  our  duty.  The  church  should  not  be 
regarded   as  corrupt,  or  as  having  departed  from   the  faith 


210  LIFE   AND    WRITINGS    OF 

until  judicial  process  has  failed  to  bring  offenders  to  justice. 
Our  Free  Church-  friends  are  like  Samson,  shorn  of  his 
strength,  iinable  to  accomplish  any  thing  since  their  exit. 
They  have  not  only  produced  a  schism,  but  they  have  sur- 
rendered their  arras,  and  their  largest  trouble  seems  to  be 
that  we  can  not  see  cause  also  to  become  "  aliens  from  the 
commonwealth  of  Israel." 

6.  If  our  five  "candid  answers"  above  are  just,  our  reply 
to  the  last  question  is,  that  we  are  not  of  the  "folks  who  live 
in  glass  houses." — Presbyterian  of  the  West. 

There  are  few  things  which  a  man  can  not  prove  if  he  has 
the  privilege  of  choosing  his  own  premises  and  making  his 
own  facts.  We  have  no  doubt  that  our  brother  is  "  candid" 
in  the  above  answers,  and  believes  all  he  states.  We  have 
just  as  little  doubt  that  the  most  important  statements  made 
above  are  without  any  solid  foundation  in  fact. 

What  the  resolution  of  1845,  so  often  alluded  to,  meant, 
must  be  learned  i'rom  its  language.  It  says,  in  the  plainest 
possible  terms,  that  slavery  as  it  exists  in  the  southern  por- 
tion of  this  country,  is  no  bar  to  Christian  communion.  It 
is  slavery  as  it  is  in  the  country,  not  slavery  divested  of  all 
alleged  abuses  ;  nor  even  "  slavery  as  it  prevails  in  our  church 
in  the  South."  Were  this  the  language  of  the  resolution  as 
the  editor  of  the  Presbyterian  of  the  West  wishes,  it  would 
not  help  his  case  at  all.  For  if  there  is  any  reliance  to  be 
placed  on  the  testimony  of  Presbyterian  Synods,  Presbyteries 
and  ministers  in  the  South,  slavery  as  practiced  by  church- 
members  is  just  as  wicked  in  all  respects  as  the  slaveholding 
practiced  by  the  men  of  the  world.  See  the  testimony  of  the 
Synod  of  Kentucky,  of  the  Harmony  Presbytery,  of  the 
Rev.  Jas.  Smylie,  etc.,  etc. 

Our  cotemporary  "  depends  upon  the  church  in  the  South 
more  than  any  other  agency  to  bring  slavery  to  an  end !  " 
A  church,  three-fourths  of  whose  members  and  ministers, 
according  to  Mr.  Smylie,  own,  buy,  sell  and  work  slaves  for 
gain,  and  hunt  them  when  they  run  away,  is  certainly  rather 
a  poor  dependence  for  bringing  "  slavery  to  an  end."  We 
might  just  as  reasonably  depend  on  the  distillers,  grogsellers 
and  drunkards  to  bring  intemperance  to  an  end. 

Oar  friend's  reply  to  our  second  query  is  mere  assertion 
without  a  shadow  of  proof.  It  is  true  there  is  a  testimony 
on  the  minutes  of  the  Assembly  to  the  effect  that  slavery  is  a 
"grievous  wrong,"  "a  gross  violation  of  the  most  precious 
and  sacred  rights  of  human  nature,"  etc.     But  that  testimony 


REV.    JOSEPH   GORDON.  211 

to  Old  School  Presbyterians  is  musty  and  worm-eaten. 
Nearly  forty  years  have  passed  since  it  was  adopted,  and  not 
the  first  step  has  been  taken  toward  carryino-  out  its  recom- 
mendations by  their  church,  notwithstanding  slavery  has 
grown  with  their  growth  and  strengthened  with  their  strength. 
This  old  testimony  would  be  a  dead  letter  to  Old  School 
Presbyterians,  even  if  it  had  not  been  virtually  repealed  in 
1845. 

Our  friend's  reply  to  our  third  question  shows  a  faith  in 
him  that  might  move  mountains,  if,  unfortunately,  it  were 
not  utterly  without  foundation.  Will  he  point  us  to  a  single 
instance  within  the  past  twenty  years,  in  which  a  single  min- 
ister of  his  church,  among  the  multitudes  who  have  "justified 
slavery  and  its  most  infamous  laws,"  has  been  censured  in  the 
slightest  degree  ?  Will  he,  with  the  examples  of  such  men 
as  Drs.  Junkin,  Hodge,  Plummer,  etc.,  etc.,  before  him,  deny 
that  any  Old  School  ministers  do  justify  slavery?  Will  he 
deny  that  the  fugitive  slave  act  of  1850  is  a  most  "infamous 
law,"  or  that  it  was  justified  and  defended  by  Drs.  Lord, 
Boardman  and  other  Old  School  Presbyterian  clergymen? 
And  will  he  tell  us  when  a  hint  was  ever  given  in  any  Old 
School  paper.  Presbytery,  Synod  or  General  Assembly  of 
censuring  these  men? 

But  our  friend's  reply  to  our  fifth  question  is,  of  all  the 
rest,  the  most  preposterous.  "  The  prima  facie  evidence  is 
that  slaveholders  in  our  church  abhor  the  system ! !  "  My 
dear  brother,  where  was  your  conscience  when  you  penned 
that  assertion?  T]iq  prima  facie  evidence  in  all  cases  is,  that 
what  a  man,  or  at  least  a  professing  Christian^  habitually 
practices  he  loves  and  approves.  When  a  man  habitually 
drinks  rum,  the  j^^'^'^ic^  facie  evidence  is  that  he  likes  it. 
When  a  nominally  Christian  minister  habitually  chews 
tobacco,  goes  to  the  theater,  drinks  wine,  etc.,  the  prima  facie 
evidence  is  that  he  loves  and  approves  these  practices.  By 
what  process  of  logic  the  man  who  habitually  practices  slave- 
holding  is  made  an  exception  to  this  universal  rule,  it  would 
puzzle  a  modern  doctor  of  divinity  to  toll. 

But  further  :  If  our  friend's  "  name  had  been  Simon  Peter, 
and  he  had  been  at  the  first  Lord's  Supper,  he  would  have 
eaten  with  Judas  Iscariot.  He  would  have  taken  it  for 
granted  that  he  was  a  good  man  until  he  found  it  otherwise." 
Exactly  so.  But  would  you  have  eaten  the  Lord's  Supper 
with  Judas  Iscariot  after  you  did  find  it  otherwise  ?  If  your 
name  had  been  Simon  Peter,  and  Judas  Iscariot,  after  betray- 


212  LIl'l  AND   WRITINGS  OF 

ing  liis  master,  instead  of  hanging  himself,  had  come  to  the 
second  Lord's  Supper  and  claimed  a  place,  would  you  have 
eaten  v.'ith  him  then?  If  you  answer  "yes"  to  this  question, 
and  can  prove  that  it  would  have  been  right,  then  you  will 
have  proved  something  in  favor  of  eating  the  Lord's  Supper 
with  slaveholders,  but  not  otherwise.  The  evidence  of  their 
guilt  is  open,  palpable.  The  stolen  men  and  women  are 
"found  in  their  hands,"  and  if  they  lived  under  the  Mosaic 
law,  they  would  every  one  be  put  to  death.  There  are  three 
specifications  of  the  crime  of  man-stealing  in  that  law,  each 
one  of  which  was  punished  with  death.  1.  Stealing  a  man. 
2.  Selling  him.  3.  Holding  him — having  him  in  the  hand. 
Of  the  last  of  these  specifications  of  this  capital  crime,  every 
habitual  and  voluntary  slaveholder  in  the  land  is  guilty.  The 
excuse  put  in  for  these  men,  that  they  sometimes  buy  men 
to  save  them  from  perpetual  bondage,  would  be  valid  if  they 
emancipated  them  after  they  bought  them.  But  to  buy  a 
man  to  save  him  from  perpetual  bondage,  and  then  hold  him 
in  that  very  bondage,  is  as  unique  a  performance  as  compell- 
ing a  man  to  volunteer.  It  is  the  same  thing  in  principle  as 
for  a  minister  to  buy  the  liquors  of  a  grogseller  for  the  pur- 
pose of  preventing  them  from  being  drunk,  and  then  openly 
drinking  them  himself. 

Finally  :  Our  friend  intends  to  stay  in  fellowship  with  slave- 
holders until  a  judicial  process  lias  been  tried  and  failed.  He 
will  get  his  process  issued  and  tried  about  the  same  time  that 
the  Southern  Church  "brings  slavery  to  an  end."  Forty 
years  is  a  long  time  to  wait  for  a  process  of  discipline.  As 
to  Free  Presbyterians,  they  did  all  they  possibly  could  for 
long  years  to  bring  the  discipline  of  the  church  to  bear  on 
slaveholders,  and  left  only  when  the  last  hope  of  success  was 
utterly  gone.  Failing,  after  every  effort,  to  get  the  men- 
stealers  put  out  of  the  church,  they  did  the  only  righteous 
and  consistent  thing  that  remained — left  the  church  them- 
selves. 


Sidney  Presbttery  and  Key.  William  Perkins. 

The  Presbyterian  of  the  West  quotes  the  action  of  the 
Sidney  Presbytery  on  the  application  of  Brother  Perkins  for 
dismissal,  and  comments  on  our  notice  thereof  as  follows  : 

"  The  Free  Presbyterian  treats  these  proceedings  of  Sidney 


KEV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  213 

Presbytery  sportively,  if  not  ill-naturedly.  The  editor  says  : 
'A  single  member  of  the  Ripley  Presbytery  has  probably  for- 
got more  theology  than  the  whole  Presbytery  of  Sidney  ever 
knew.'  Indeed  !  If  he  has  forgotten  the  theology  which 
the  members  of  the  Sidney  Presbytery  know,  and  retains 
what  these  never  knew,  and  if  his  theology  is  the  same  with 
the  other  members  of  Ripley,  we  don't  wonder  that  the  Sid- 
ney brethren  are  '  not  in  possession  of  any  definite  knowl- 
edge of  their  doctrinal  belief.'  There  is  one  item  (not  of 
theology,  but  of  Church  history)  which  it  would  be  well  for 
Mr.  Perkins  and  the  editor  to  forget;  for,  after  it  is  forgotten, 
they  will  hold  as  much  truth  as  they  now  hold.     They  say: 

"  '  In  1845  they  (the  Old  School  Assembly)  declared  if 
slavery  were  put  out  of  the  church  it  would  be  dissolved  ; 
hence  it  is  an  essential  element  in  all  churches.  The  Free 
Church  is  without  this  element;  therefore,  it  is  no  church, 
and  they  can  not  send  any  minister  to  it.' 

"  Our  Free  Church  friends  are  not  willing  to  believe  that  we 
are  doing  anything  for  the  African  ;  and  they  seem  to  regard 
their  mission  as  mainly  accomplished  by  a  bitter  opposition 
to  us.  They  will  not  allow  that  we  are  in  favor  of  teaching 
slaves  to  read  the  Bible,  or  of  emancipation,  or  of  making 
Kansas  a  free  State.  A  large  part  of  the  preaching  of  the 
gospel  with  them  consists  in  warning  us  to  flee  from  the 
church  of  our  fathers.  We  sometimes  wonder  if  they  think 
we  ever  had  any  religion,  or  if  their  view  is  that  we  have  fal- 
len from  grace.  We  are  clear  that  they  are  guilty  of  schism, 
and  that  they  have  cut  themselves  off  from  what  influence 
they  might  have  enjoyed  and  wielded  for  the  good  of  the 
slave.  Has  it  never  occurred  to  them  that  there  has  never 
been,  in  any  case,  judicial  proceedings  against  any  man  for 
cruelty  to  slaves,  or  for  holding  that  slavery  is  a  Divine  insti- 
tution and  a  blessing?  The  foundation  of  the  Free  Church 
is  the  abstract  question:  'Is  slavery  a  sin  per  sef  That 
church  afiirms  and  has  more  charges  to  make  against  those 
that  deny  than  against  slave-drivers.  Like  the  infidel  aboli- 
tionists of  New  England  (the  party  of  whom  Glarrison  and 
Phillips  are  the  leaders),  who  have  been  led  by  their  abstrac- 
tions to  turn  their  batteries  away  from  slavery,  against  the 
Church  and  the  State,  against  the  Bible  and  the  ministry,  our 
Free  Churchmen  are  turning  their  arms  against  the  church 
they  have  left  and  the  old  ministers  who  have  taught  them 
and  their  children  the  way  of  the  Lord.  Their  violent  deal- 
ings will  come  down  upon  their  own  pates. 


214  LIFE   AND    WRITINGS    OF 

"A  sensible  and  pleasant  young  man  said  tlae  other  day  : 
'My  father  and  mother  taught  me  to  believe  that  a  certain 
old  minister  was  as  perfect  and  pure  as  any  living  man  could 
be.  My  reverence  and  respect  for  him  was  almost  man-wor- 
ship. Now  they  are  in  the  Free  Church,  and  they  speak  bit- 
terly and  reproachfully  of  him  as  if  they  sought  his  down- 
fall. In  conversation  with  one  of  their  ministers,  all  seemed 
to  glory  in  the  prospect  that  he  would  soon  die,  and,  if  not 
before,  his  church  would  then  be  scattered.'  The  inquiry 
was  made  of  the  young  man  :  '  Well,  what  do  you  think  of 
the  old  man  now?'  He  replied:  'I  shall  always  know  that 
he  is  a  wise  and  good  man,  but  I  begin  to  doubt  whether  he 
or  they  who  talk  about  him  have  any  religion  ;  or,  rather, 
whether  there  is  any  such  thing  as  religion.'  Whenever, 
for  any  moral  reform,  we  get  so  far  along  that  we  can  sacrifice 
the  peace  and  purity  of  the  Church,  and  affiliate  with  all  who 
agree  with  us  in  our  '  one  idea,''  there  is  but  little  hope  for 
us  or  our  children.  Presbyterianism,  its  doctrines,  its  order, 
and  its  worship,  is  our  highest  admiration  and  our  chief  hope 
for  our  children  ;  and  we  shall  stand  in  our  lot  and  testify, 
and  watch,  and  pray,  and  work,  until  she  is  purified  from 
intemperance,  and  oppression,  and  every  sin  ;  or  until  we  are 
by  unmerited  grace  permitted  to  join  the  purified  Church  ou 
high. 

"  In  regard  to  the  translation  of  ministers  in  such  cases,  it 
may  be  said,  letters  of  dismission  should  not  be  asked  or 
granted.  A  certificate  of  good  standing  ought  not  to  be 
refused,  and  it  is  all  that  is  needed.  Dismissions  to  join  other 
bodies  are  only  proper  where  the  body  granting  them  approves 
of  the  translation." 

We  are  not  aware  of  anything  specially  "  sportive  or  ill- 
natured"  in  our  notice  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Presbytery  of 
Sidney  in  this  case.  Their  confession  of  ignorance  of  the 
doctrinal  views  of  our  church,  we  thought  was  rather  discred- 
itable to  their  general  intelligence,  and  we  said  so.  But  let 
this  pass. 

The  editor  of  the  Preshyterian  of  the  TFcs^,  thinks  we  ought 
to  forget  that  his  General  Assembly  in  1845  resolved  in  sub- 
stance that  if  slavery  was  put  out  of  their  communion,  their 
church  would  be  dissolved.  Doubtless  the  editor  and  many 
others  would  like  to  have  this  dark  transaction  forgotten.  It 
does  no  credit  to  his  church  or  to  the  cause  of  Christ.  We,  too, 
would  gladly  forget  it  if  fidelity  to  Grod  and  his  oppressed 
poor  admitted.     Let  the  editor  put  forth  all  his  strength  for 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDOX.  215 

the  repeal  of  tliese  flagitious  resolutions,  and  wlien  lie  suc- 
ceeds VfQ  will  try  with  all  our  miirht  to  forget  that  they  were 
ever  passed  by  a  professedly  Christian  body. 

The  editor  says,  the  mission  of  our  churches  is  mainly  to 
manifest  bitter  opposition  to  Old  School  Presbyterians.  We 
think  we  have  a  higher  and  holier  mission,  and  that  is  to  pre- 
sent the  gospel  of  Jesus  to  the  world  as  uncompromisingly 
hostile  to  slavery,  intemperance,  and  every  form  of  sin.  It  is 
not  thus  presented  to  the  world  by  a  church  which  declares 
that  its  very  existence  depends  in  fellowshiping  slavery. 

He  complains  that  we  will  not  admit  that  they  are  in  favor 
of  teaching  the  slaves  to  read  the  Bible,  or  of  emancipation, 
or  of  making  Kansas  a  free  State.  We  will  gladly  admit  all 
this  when  we  have  evidence  to  prove  that  such  is  the  fact.  It 
is  only  a  few  months  since  one  of  the  editors  of  the  Southern, 
Presh/terian,  a  minister  in  regular  standing  in  the  Old  School 
Presbyterian  Church,  came  out  fiercely  in  opposition  to  teach- 
ing slaves  to  read  the  Bible.  If  he  has  ever  been  censured 
by  his  Presbytery,  we  have  never  heard  of  it.  We  find  noth- 
ing in  any  of  the  publications  of  the  Old  School  Presbyterian 
Church  which  we  read,  to  convince  us  that  any  considerable 
body  of  its  members  desire  the  abolition  of  slavery.  But  we 
do  find  some  of  their  leading  doctors  of  divinity — their  Bices, 
Lords,  Boardmans,  Plummers,  etc., — ^_iustifying  both  slave- 
holding  and  slave-catching  from  the  Bible ;  we  find  the  last 
named  of  these  doctors  declaring  that  abolitionists  ought  to 
be  burned  at  the  stake,  and  after  this  atrocious  declaration 
has  been  before  the  world  for  years,  we  find  its  author  elected 
by  the  General  Assembly  to  a  professorship  in  one  of  its  the- 
ological seminaries.  It  may  be  that  the  editor  of  the  Presby- 
terian of  the  West,  and  other  members  of  the  church,  would 
like  to  have  Kansas  made  a  free  State,  though  we  can  not  see 
w^hy ;  for  if  slavery  is  good  enough  to  be  kept  in  their  church 
they  ought  to  think  it  good  enough  to  go  into  Kansas. 

The  editor  "  is  cle^r  that  we  are  guilty  of  schism."  We  are  ' 
clear  that  the  real  schismatics  are  the  members  of  the  Assem- 
bly of  1845,  and  those  who  indorse  their  action.  The  sin 
of  schism  consists  not  in  leaving  a  corrupt  church,  for  God 
expressly  commands  his  people  to  come  out  from  such,  but  in 
corrupting  the  church  and  thus  comjielh'ng  God's  people  to 
withdraw  ;  and  this  is  just  what  the  slaveholders  and  the  As- 
sembly of  1845  have  done.  So  "clear"  are  we  on  this  point 
that  if  the  editor  of  the  Preslyterian  of  the  West  will  open  his 
columns  to  its  discussion,  we  will  publish  /iro  columns  of  what 


216  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

he  may  write  on  the  subject,  for  every  07te  that  he  publishes 
for  us.     We  make  this  offer  in  good  faith.     Will  it  be  accepted? 

Our  brother  editor  next  asks  a  very  singular  question.  He 
inquires,  "  Has  it  never  occurred  to  them  (Free-Churchmen) 
that  there  has  never  been  in  any  case  judicial  proceeding 
against  any  man  for  cruelty  to  slaves,  or  for  holding  that 
slavery  is  a  Divine  institution  and  a  blessing  ?  "  Yea,  verily, 
it  has  often  occurred  to  us,  and  it  is  just  this  fact  that  shows 
his  church  to  be  utterly  corrupt  and  guilty  on  this  subject. 
The  most  atrocious  cruelties  may  be  practiced  by  Old  School 
Presbyterian  slaveholders  on  their  slaves,  without  calling  for 
any  judicial  proceedings.  The  whole  Synod  of  Kentucky 
testify  explicitly  to  this  point,  as  follows  : 

"  Cases  have  occurred  in  our  own  denomination  in  which 
professors  of  the  religion  of  mercy  have  sold  the  mother  from 
her  children,  and  sent  her  into  merciless  and  returnless  exile, 
and,  7/et  discipline  has  rareli/  followed." 

The  Eev.  James  Smylie,  an  Old  School  Presbyterian  minis- 
ter of  Mississippi,  says : 

"  If  to  buy,  sell  and  hold  slaves  for  gain,  to  advertise,  pur- 
sue and  apprehend  them  ichen  they  run  awai/,  be  a  heinous 
sin  and  scandal,  then  three-fourtbs  of  all  the  Presbyterians, 
Methodists,  Baptists  and  Episcopalians  in  the  South  are  of  the 
Devil." 

The  running  away  of  a  slave  is  prima  facie  evidence  of  cruel 
treatment,  and  so  consequently  is  the  pursuing  and  apprehend- 
ing of  the  runaway  ;  and  yet,  according  to  the  testimony  of 
one  of  their  own  ministers,  and  he  an  apologist  for  slavery, 
three-fourths  of  all  the  Presbyterians  of  the  South  are  engaged 
in  this  cruelty  and  wickedness.  And  yet  they  are  never  dis- 
ciplined for  it.  Can  anything  show  more  clearly  the  heartless 
guilt  and  corruption  of  the  Old  School  Presbyterian  Church 
on  this  subject  than  these  facts  ? 

"  The  foundation  of  the  Free  Church  is  the  abstract  ques- 
tion, '  Is  slavery  a  sin  per  sef  '  "  The  foundation  of  the  Free 
Church  is  "  the  apostles  and  prophets,  Jesus  Christ  being  the 
chief  corner-stone."  That  is  the  truths  taught  by  prophets 
and  apostles,  and  especially  by  Jesus  Christ.  Among  these 
truths  are  some  very  explicit  commands,  one  of  which  runs  on 
this  wise  :  "  Have  no  fellowship  with  the  unfruitful  works  of 
darkness,  but  rather  reprove  them."  If  slavery  is  not  an  un- 
fruitful work  of  darkness,  then  no  such  work  was  ever  done 
under  the  sun.  And  yet  our  brother's  church  declares  that  if 
it  puts  slavery  out  of  its  fellowship,  it  will  thereby  dissolve 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  217 

itself.  Another  of  the  foundation  truths  of  our  church,  and 
of  every  true  church,  is  "  not  to  keep  company,  if  any  man  that 
is  called  a  brother  be  a  fornicator,  or  covetous,  or  a  drunkard, 
or  an  extortioner;  with  such  an  one  no  not  to  eat."  If  the  slave- 
holder be  not  a  covetous  man  and  an  extortioner,  then  no 
such  man  can  be  found  on  the  earth.  Yet,  with  them.  Old 
School  Presbyterians  eat  every  time  they  set  down  to  the 
Lord's  Table. 

We  pass  over  the  story  told  by  "a  sensible  and  pleasant 
young  man,"  which,  if  true  in  all  its  parts,  which  we  very 
much  doubt,  is  not  pertinent  to  the  points  in  issue.  A 
"young  man,"  no  matter  how  "sensible  and  pleasant"  he 
may  be,  who  "  doubts  whether  there  is  any  such  thing  as  reli- 
gion," and  who  is  capable  of  holding  up  his  own  parents  to 
public  contempt,  is  not  likely  to  be  the  most  truthful  witness 
in  the  world. 

The  insinuation  that  Free  Presbyterians  affiliate  in  church 
fellowship  with  all  who  agree  with  them  in  the  one  idea  of 
opposition  to  slavery,  is  simply  false.  We  defy  the  editor  of 
the  Preahyterian  of  the  West  to  show  a  single  instance  in  which 
our  church  has  given  up  one  doctrine  of  Divine  revelation, 
or  a  single  principle  of  genuine  Preshyterianism,  in  theory  or 
practice.  But  if  we  had  affiliated  with  opponents  of  slavery, 
our  friend  is  not  the  man  to  throw  stones  at  us.  We  would 
like  to  know  which  is  the  worst,  to  affiliate  with  opponents  of 
slavery  who  may  not  be  able  to  speak  [ilainly  on  all  our  the- 
ological shibboleths,  or  with  men  who,  according  to  the  fath- 
ers of  his  own  church,  are  guilty  of  the  highest  kind  of  theft, 
and  are  ranked  along  with  murderers  of  fathers  and  murder- 
ers of  mothers.  The  editor  of  the  Preshj/terian  of  the  Tl'esi 
affiliates  with  the  latter  to  the  extent  of  communing  in  his 
church  with  ninety  thousand  of  them.  Free  Presbyterians 
affiliate  with  neither  class. 

Finally,  our  friend  is  going  to  "  stand  in  his  lot  and  testify, 
and  watch,  and  pray,  and  work,  until  his  church  is  purified 
from  intemperance  and  oppression,  and  every  sin,"  etc.  So, 
then,  intemperance  and  oppression,  and  every  sin  are  found  in 
his  church,  are  they?  Had  a  Free  Presbyterian  said  so,  he 
would  have  charged  him  with  "slander,"  "  bitter  opposition," 
and  a  multitude  of  other  offenses.  But  now  our  brother 
editor  owns  up  to  it  all.  Let  us  not,  therefore,  be  charged 
with  falsehood  when  we  assert  the  same  thing  hereafter. 

But  we  are  glad  our  brother  has  come  to  this  determina- 
tion. We  hope  he  Avill  go  to  work  vigorously  and  persever- 
19  .  ^ 


218  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

ingly;  and  as  soon  as  lie  despairs  of  success,  as  he  soon  will 
if  he  labors  in  earnest,  he  will  be  ready  to  come  to  us,  into  a 
Presbyterian  Church  that  is  already  purified  from  intemper- 
ance, oppression,  and  every  gross  and  open  immorality. 


Hard  Names. 

We  have  no  partiality  to  hard  names,  but  we  think  there  is 
an  evident  propriety  in  calling  things  by  their  right  names. 
Hard  words  are  generally  the  expression  of  angry  feelings ; 
right  names  must  be  used  in  the  faithful  reproof  of  sin.  If 
a  man  commits  a  murder,  we  see  no  good  reason  why  he 
should  not  be  called  a  murderer.  There  is  no  unkindness  in 
the  use  of  the  Tight  term.  If  society  has  agreed  to  call  his 
crime  by  some  other  name,  that  is  no  cause  why  those  who  see 
it  in  its  true  character  should  not  call  it  by  its  proper  name. 
In  such  a  ease  it  will  generally  be  found  impossible  to  con- 
vince the  man  of  his  guilt  by  the  use  of  any  softer  term. 
Yet  it  is  the  highest  kindness  to  try  to  convince  him  of  his 
sin.  We  think  the  Christian  rule  is  to  treat  him  kindly  as  a 
man,  while  treating  him  justly  as  a  criminal.  If  a  man  com- 
mits the  crime  of  theft,  we  likewise  see  no  good  reason  W'hy 
he  shall  not  be  called  a  thief.  Christian  charity  and  courtesy 
are  not  violated  by  the  application  of  this  term. 

Now,  there  are  certain  practices  and  institutions  in  this 
country  which  society  has  said  are  legal,  and  which  many  peo- 
ple have  agreed  to  treat  with  respect,  which  we  can  not  pos- 
sibly recognize  as  any  thing  else  than  murderous  and  dishon- 
est. Among  these  are  the  practices  of  selling  liquor,  and  of 
waging  war,  and  the  institution  of  slavery.  We  are  not  alone 
in  our  estimate  of  these  wrongs.  But,  authority  aside,  let  us 
look  calmly  at  them  in  the  light  of  Scripture  and  reason. 

What  is  murder?  It  is  not  only  taking  life  suddenly,  and 
with  malice  prepense,  hiit  also  j^^irsuing  a  course  the  natural 
and  necessary  iendency  of  tvhich  is  to  shorten  life,  A  no  less 
orthodox  authority  than  the  Shorter  Catechism  informs  us 
that  "the  sixth  commandment  forbiddeth  the  taking  away  of 
our  own  life,  or  the  life  of  our  neighbor  unjustly,  or  ivhatever 
tendeth  thereunto ^  Now,  take  a  simple  case.  Suppose  two 
men  of  equal  health,  and  strength,  and  age.  The  one  uses 
intoxicating  liquors  habitually;  the  other  abstains  entirely 
from  their  use.     There  ia  not  a  grog-seller  in   the  land  who 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  219 

does  not  know  that,  other  things  being  equal,  the  latter  will 
live  longer  than  the  former.  Yet  he  deliberately  furnishes 
the  liquor  which  he  knows  has  a  tendency  to  shorten  life.  It 
is,  therefore,  simply  false  to  call  his  practice  anything  else 
than  murderous.  Yet  in  designating  it  thus  we  would  do  no 
injury,  and  no  unkindness  to  the  rum-seller.  We  desire  only 
that  he  might  be  brought  to  repentance,  and  to  forsake  his 
guilt.  He  should  be  charged  with  murder,  only  to  convince 
him  of  sin,  and  to  warn  others  against  being  ensnared,  by  his 
influence,  into  intemperance. 

Again  :  It  is  but  reiterating  a  truth,  which  great  names 
have  indorsed,  to  say  that  every  man  has  a  right  to  own  him- 
self. It  follows  that  he  who  deprives  him  of  that  right,  takes 
what  belongs  to  another,  and  is,  therefore,  guilty  of  theft. 
Why,  then,  should  he  not  be  called  a  thief?  To  say  that  this 
term  is  too  harsh,  is  simply  ridiculous.  It  is  the  only  appro- 
priate term.  In  applying  this  term  to  slaveholders,  however, 
we  would  not  charge  them  all  with  possessing  the  feelings  and 
motives  of  man-stealers.  With  hidden  motives  and  feelings 
we  have  nothing  to  do.  To  God  they  are  known,  and  by  him 
will  be  rewarded  or  punished.  But  the  crime  of  man-stealing 
is  there;  a  man  is  deprived  of  his  inalienable  right  to  liberty; 
and  he  who  deprives  him  is  guilty  of  the  theft.  If  his 
motives  and  feelings  are  good,  he  can  plead  that  before  the 
bar  of  his  Maker.  Our  business  is  to  try  to  convince  him  of 
the  guilt  of  his  practice,  and  to  do  so  we  must  call  it  by  the 
right  name. 

We  have  the  highest  examples  of  the  use  of  very  strong, 
not  to  say  hard,  names  toward  a  very  respectable  class  of  peo- 
ple. When  the  Pharisees  and  Sadducees  came  to  John  the 
Baptist  to  be  baptized,  he  addressed  them  thus  :  "  O,  genera- 
tion of  vipers,  who  hath  warned  you  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to 
come  ?"  If  any  one  wishes  an  example  of  the  Saviour's  use 
of  right  names,  he  can  find  it  by  reading  the  twenty-third 
chapter  of  Matthew  entire.  The  Apostle  John  uses  this  lan- 
guage :  "  Whosoever  hatetli  his  brother  is  a  murderer,  and  ye 
know  that  no  murderer  hath  eternal  life  abiding  in  him." 
"If  a  man  say  I  love  God,  and  hateth  his  brotlaer,  he  is  a 
Ztor." 

To  say  that  Jesus  Christ  and  these  inspired  men  used  such 
language,  in  view  of  the  secret  wickedness  of  heart  of  those 
to  whom  they  applied  it,  is  not  true.  The  language  was 
based  on  their  outward  conduct,  not  on  their  hidden  motives 
and    feelings.     It   was   because   the    Scribes    and    Pharisees 


220  LIFE    AND   AVRITINGS    OF 

"devoured  widows'  liouses,  and  bound  heavy  burdens  on 
men's  shoulders,"  that  they  were  denounced  as  a  "  generation 
of  vipers,  fit  only  for  the  damnation  of  hell."  It  is  not  very 
easy  to  see  why  those  who  now,  not  only  devour  widows' 
houses,  and  rob  them  of  their  substance,  but  who  also  take 
the  loidows  fhemsdves  and  reduce  them  to  property,  should  be 
called  by  any  milder  terms  than  those  employed  by  the 
"  meek  and  lowly  Jesus,"  and  the  most  gentle  of  the  apostles. 
If  these  terms  were  applied  to  those  guilty  of  these  wrongs, 
why  are  they  not  still  more  applicable  to  churches  which, 
with  greater  light,  receive  those  practicing  them,  without 
opposition  or  rebuke,  and  thus  encourage  them  in  the  wrong? 


A  Standing  Testimony. 

In  the  recent  action  (or  rather  non-action)  of  the  Synod  of 
Pittsburg  on  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  we  find  the  following  : 

"  Whereas,  This  Synod  has  already  and  repeatedly  borne 
its  testimony  in  strong  language  iu  opposition  to  chattel 
slavery  as  a  great  political  and  social  evil,  involving  great 
and  deplorable  inoral  evils  in  its  history,  and  which  testimony 
would  not  be  strengthened  by  repetition,"  etc. 

We  refer  to  this  not  for  the  purpose  of  showing  the  utter 
insufiiciency  of  a  testimony  against  slavery,  merely  as  a  polit- 
ical  and  social,  and  not  as  a  moral  evil.  This  is  the  position 
of  the  Synod.  It  refuses  to  declare  slavery  a  si»,  and  holds 
constant  religious  communion  with  those  living  in  the  open, 
constant  practice  of  the  wrong.  But  it  is  to  the  principle 
stated  in  the  last  part  of  the  above  extract  we  call  attention  : 
"  Our  testimony  loould  not  be  strengthened  hy  repetition.^^  The 
principle  taught  here  is,  that  if  a  church  once  bears  its  testi- 
mony against  an  evil,  that  is  enough.  There  is  no  obligation 
to  repeat  it.  "  It  would  not  be  strengthened  by  repetition." 
If  this  be  a  sound  principle,  it  will  apply  in  other  cases.  We 
see  no  good  reason  why  it  will  not  apply  in  all  cases.  Now, 
if  the.  Synod  of  Pittsburg  honestly  hold  this  doctrine,  why 
do  they  not  bear  a  comprehensive  testimony  against  all  evils 
and  sins,  and  then  disband  themselves,  and  give  up  all  their 
agencies  and  instrumentalities  for  disseminating  truth  and 
opposing  error  ?  Let  them  appoint  a  committee  to  prepare 
"  a  testimony  "  against  every  form  of  political  and  social 
evil — slavery,  war,  intemperance,  profanity,  sabbath-breaking, 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  221 

licentiousness,  etc.  Let  them  include  in  this  a  testimony 
against  all  the  heresies  in  doctrine,  past  and  present,  which 
have  ever  troubled  the  Church  and  deceived  the  world.  Let 
them  testify  at  the  same  time  against  the  depravity  of  the 
human  heart  and  all  the  evils  that  flow  from  it;  and  in  favor 
of  all  truth  and  all  duty;  and  then,  at  the  close,  resolve,  that 
"whereas  this  Synod  has  already  and  repeatedly  borne  its 
testimony  in  strong  language  in  opposition  to  all  wrong, 
and  in  behalf  of  «//  truth,  and  all  duty,  which  testimony  would 
■not  he  strengthened  hij  repetition  ;  therefore,  resolved,  that  our 
work  is  done,  and  that  we  hereby  dissolve  our  organization, 
inasmuch  as  there  is  nothing  more  for  us  to  do." 

Look  at  the  advantage  of  this  step.  All  the  institutions  of 
religion — a  ministry,  religious  papers,  books,  tracts,  etc.,  are 
for  the  purpose  of  bearing  testimony  on  the  various  subjects 
we  have  named.  By  the  step  above  named,  which  consist- 
ency with  their  own  avowed  principle  calls  the  Synod  to  take, 
all  the  vast  expense,  and  labor,  and  trouble  of  these  agencies 
would  be  saved.  An  army  of  missionaries  would  be  ready 
to  go  forth  into  other  lands  and  bear  the  same  testimony 
there.  Their  congregations,  relieved  from  their  support  at 
home,  could  donate  the  amount  of  their  salaries  to  sustain 
them  abroad.  A  letter  to  the  people  showing  the  advant- 
ages of  this  step  would  be  all  that  would  be  necessary. 
Such  a  letter  would  be  a  standing  injunction  to  benevolence 
and  liberality,  '■'■ichich  would  not  he  strengthened  bi/  repetitions^' 
and,  therefore,  would  do  just  as  well  in  leading  the  people  to 
contribute  liberally  and  constantly  as  all  the  multiplied 
appeals  with  which  they  are  now  wearied  through  agents  and 
newspapers,  and  the  preachers  in  general.  Such  an  arrange- 
ment, if  generally  entered  into,  would  soon  supply  the  whole 
heathen  world  with  missionaries  ;  and  in  heathen  lands  a 
single  "  testimony  "  against  their  idolatries,  and  other  evils 
and  sins,  would  be  all  that  would  be  needed,  seeing  such 
"  testimonies  are  not  strengthened  hy  repetition^''  Such  a  testi- 
mony could  in  this  way,  in  the  course  of  a  year  or  two,  be 
brought  to  bear  on  the  minds  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the 
globe,  and  under  its  influence  the  millennium  be  expected  to 
commence  about  the  time  of  the  next  presidential  election. 
These  legitimate  consequences  of  the  Synod's  principle  furnish 
one  test  by  which  to  try  its  accuracy. 

Let  us  look  at  it  now  in  the  light  of  Scripture.  In  the 
28th  of  Isaiah,  10th  verse,  we  read  :  "  For  precept  must  be 
upon    precept,    precept  upon    precept;  line  upon  line,   line 


222  LIFE   AND    WRITINGS    OF 

upon  line  ;  here  a  little,  and  there  a  little.''  This  is  repeated 
in  the  13th  verse :  "  But  the  word  of  the  Lord  was  unto 
them,  precept  upon  precept,  precept  upon  precept ;  line  upon 
line,  line  upon  line  ;  here  a  little,  and  tliere  a  little." 

The  prophet  Isaiah  seems  not  at  all  to  have  understood  or 
embraced  the  ethics  of  the  Synod  of  Pittsburg.  He  might 
have  avoided  a  world  of  trouble  and  a  violent  death  if  he  had. 
After  having  "  lifted  up  his  voice  like  a  trumpet,  and  shown 
the  people  their  transgressions,  and  the  house  of  Jacob  their 
sins  (the  very  saiue  sins  against  which  the  Synod  of  Pitts- 
burg refuse  to  repeat  their  testimony),  he  might  have  retired 
to  private  life,  cultivated  his  vineyard,  sat  in  safety  under  his 
fig-tree,  and  left  his  testimony,  which  could  "  not  be  stnength- 
ened  by  repetition,"  to  do  its  work.  Why  might  it  not  have 
done  as  well?  His  repeated  testimonies  seem  to  have  been 
to  a  great  extent  disregarded  ;  for  toward  the  close  of  his 
prophesy  he  utters  the  complaint,  "  Who  hath  believed  our 
report,  and  to  whom  is  the  arm  of  the  Lord  revealed?  " 

In  the  21st  chapter  of  Matthew  there  is  a  Divine  proceed- 
ing related  in  a  parable,  'which  might  have  been  managed 
much  better  if  the  principle  of  the  Pittsburg  Synod  be  cor- 
rect. A  certain  householder  planted  a  vineyard,  fixed  it  all 
in  good  order,  and  let  it  out  to  husbandmen.  At  the 
appointed  time  he  sent  his  servants  to  receive  of  the  fruits. 
The  husbandmen  made  summary  work  with  the  first  that 
came.  They  "beat  one,  and  killed  another,  and  stoned 
another."  A  second  company  was  sent,  which  fared  no  better 
than  the  first.  Lastly,  he  sent  his  son,  "  his  only  begotten 
and  well  beloved.  '  "The  husbandmen  caught  him,  and  cast 
him  out  of  the  vineyard,  and  slew  him." 

All  interpreters  of  Scripture  agree  that  this  parable  repre- 
sents the  treatment  which  the  Jewish  nation  gave  to  the 
prophets,  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  These  were  sent 
repeatedly  to  the  Jews  to  testify  against  their  sins,  and  call 
them  to  repentance.  The  violent  death  of  one  company  did 
not  deter  Jehovah,  the  Lord  of  the  vineyard,  from  sending 
others  ;  or  from  lastly  sending  his  "  only  begotten  and  well- 
beloved  Son." 

Now  our  brethren  of  the  Pittsburg  Synod  would  liave  man- 
aged this  matter  differently.  Having  sent  forth  one  messenger, 
or  issued  one  paper  testimony,  they  would  have  resolved  that 
this  message  or  testimony  could  not  be  strengthened  by  rep- 
etition ;  and  by  conducting  the  enterprise  on  these  prudent 
principles,  would  have  saved  many  a  valuable  life. 


REV.    JOSEPH    GOPvDON.  223 

Let  us  look  at  tins  matter  a  little  further.  The  latest  tes- 
tiuiony  of  the  Synod  of  Pittsburg,  on  the  subject  of  slavery, 
was  (we  think)  in  the  year  1845 — five  years  ago.  How  long 
this  testimony  is  yet  to  last  the  Synod  do  not  tell  us.  Prom 
the  fact  that  they  refuse  to  repeat  it,  it  is  evident  that  they 
think  it  will  answer  the  purpose  for  a  while  to  come,  at  least. 
Now,  suppose  the  Synod  had,  five  years  ago,  uttered  their  tes- 
timony against  the  evils  of  intemperance.  We  will  suppose 
this  to  have  been  a  faithful,  earnest  testimony;  not  a  half- 
way, pitiful  sort  of  thing,  like  that  which  they  did  adopt  on 
the  subject  of  slavery.  In  the  meantime  intemperance  goes 
on  increasing  its  victims,  extending  the  sphere  of  its  opera- 
tions, in<renching  itself  more  firmly  in  the  legislation  of  the 
country.  In  the  year  1850  it  finds  its  victims  escaping  more 
rapidly  than  usual.  The  Washingtonians  are  abroad.  It 
sends  forth  its  emissaries  to  "  recapture  the  fugitives  " — the 
poor  drunkards,  who  are  breaking  their  chains  and  fleeing 
from  the  toils  of  the  destroyer.  These  emissaries  find  their 
work  extremely  difficult  of  accomplishment,  through  the 
interference  of  the  Washingtonians.  The  grog-sellers  get  a 
law  passed  imposing  a  fine  of  $1,000,  and  six  months  impris- 
onment on  any  one  who  will  aid,  "  directly  or  indirectly^'"  the 
drunkard  to  reform.  It  also  "  commands  all  good  citizens  " 
to  aid  the  grog-seller's  agents  in  forcing  back  the  poor  drunk- 
ard to  the  place  in  which  the  temptations  to  di^ink  will  be 
spread  out  with  perfectly  irresistible  power — where  he  is  sure 
to  fall  again,  if  he  enters.  Now,  such  a  law  would  be  in  no 
whit  more  devilish  than  the  Fugitive  Bill  of  the  late  Cono^ress. 
There  is  this  important  difierence  between  the  cases.  The 
bondage  of  the  drunkard  is  voluntary ;  that  of  the  slave  is 
forced. 

The  Synod  of  Pittsburg  is,  then,  respectfully  asked  to 
express  its  opinion  on  this  law,  and  tell  its  members  whether 
to  obey  or  disobey.  That  body,  after  due  consideration 
resolves,  that  as  the  law  is  not  well  understood,  and  as  they 
have  "  already  repeatedly  borne  their  testimony  against  intem- 
perance, which  testimony  will  not  he  strenytliencd  hy  repeti- 
tion ; "  therefore,  no  action  is  called  for  at  their  hands.  Such 
a  decision  would  be  no  worse  (if  it  would  be  as  bad),  than  the 
decision  on  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  The  duty  of  the  Church 
is  to  witness  against  wrong,  and  in  behalf  of  truth,  just  so 
long  as  wrong  exists,  and  truth  is  trampled  down.  To  bear 
one  testimony  against  an  evil,  and  then  seal  the  lips  in 
silence    while  that   evil   goes    on   increasing   in   power   and 


224  LIFE   AND    WRITINGS   OF 

extent,  and  then  make  their  past  testimony  an  excuse  for 
present  silence,  is  simply  by  that  silence  to  consent  to  the 
wrong;. 


Numbers  Against  Principle. 

In  an  article  in  the  Nev)  Yorh  Evangelist  these  sentiments 
occur : 

"  There  is  sometimes,  it  is  true,  an  earthquake  power  in  a 
simple  solemn  separation  from  a  corrupt  body.  Luther's 
heaven-adjuring  protest  dealt  a  blow  at  Rome  from  which  she 
never  will  recover.  The  Free  Church  of  Scotland  was  a 
sublime  movement,  not  only  justifiable,  but  of  greater  moral 
power  than  the  thunderings  of  a  hundred  Chalmerses  in  the 
established  pulpits  could  have  exerted.  But  the  impressive- 
ness  of  such  separations  lies  in  their  being  right  and  una- 
voidable. They  become  pitiful  and  weak  when  they  awaken 
no  echo  in  the  public  sense  of  right.  The  scores  of  ruptures 
that  have  filled  Scotland  with  petty  sects,  though  made  with 
great  earnestness  and  under  solemn  forms,  have  exerted  no 
moral  power,  because  they  had  no  grand  justifying  reason 
before  God  and  men.  When  secession  becomes  the  sole 
remaining  resort,  and  the  moral  power  which  finds  no  way  of 
exercise,  gathers  itself  into  a  last  act  of  solemn  adjuration, 
then  reason  and  truth  find  an  echo  in  the  conscience  of  man- 
kind." 

We  were  aware  that  man}'  men  were  in  the  habit  of  judg- 
ing of  the  right  or  wrong  of  principles  by  the  numbers  that 
embraced  them.  That  a  majority  in  any  case  adopt  a  doc- 
trine is,  with  very  many,  an  all-sufiicient  proof  of  its  truth. 
But  that  this  rule  of  judgment  should  be  formally  set  forth 
by  a  religious  paper  claiming  sympathy  with  the  reformatory 
spirit  of  the  age,  we  did  not  expect.  The  truth  has,  in  all 
times,  been  rejected  by  the  majority.  The  friends  of  God 
have  in  every  age  been  few  and  feeble.  Therefore,  if  any- 
thing is  to  be  argued  from  this,  the  fact  that  the  believers  in 
any  particular  doctrine  are  but  few,  is  rather  an  argument  for 
its  truth.  This,  however,  is  a  false  mode  of  reasoning  in  all 
cases.  Whether  few  or  many  embrace  a  principle  is  no  cri- 
terion of  truth.  That  is  to  be  tried  and  decided  by  another 
standard ;  and  the  honest  man  when  convinced  that  any  pro- 
posed dogma  is  true,  will  not  inquire  whether  few  or  many 
receive  it. 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON,  225 

la  the  case  of  Dr.  Chalmers  and  the  Free  Church  of  Scot- 
land, suppose  that  instead  of  five  hundred  ministers  seceding 
but  three  besides  Chalmers  had  left  (as  was  the  case  with 
Erskine  and  his  adherents  more  than  a  hundred  years  before\ 
would  that  have  made  their  secession  wrong?  The  causes  of 
separation  are  supposed  to  be  the  same  as  they  were— all  the 
reasons  that  impelled  Chalmers  and  his  adherents  to  secede 
were  in  existence — but  the  Established  Church  was  so  corrupt 
that  only  four  men  could  be  found  with  conscience  enough  to 
break  the  tie  :  would  that  fact  have  changed  the  question  of 
duty?  This  is  the  doctrine,  or  a  necessary  inference  from  the 
doctrine  of  the  Evangelist.  But  so  far  from  this  being  cor- 
i'ect,  the  very  opposite  would  be  true.  If  the  hundreds  that 
left  with  Chalmers  had  approved  the. evils  for  which  they  left, 
it  would  have  added  fearfully  to  the  corruption  of  the  estab- 
lished church,  and  would  have  vastly  diminished  the  hope  of 
a  reformation.  It  would,  therefore,  have  added  incalculable 
weight  to  the  reasons  for  a  secession.  But  according  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  Ecangeli&t,  it  would  have  rendered  their  with- 
drawal "weak  and  pitiful."  What  a  diiference  with  some 
people  numbers  do  make  !  That  the  world  would  have  scoffed 
at  the  "  Comeouters,"  is  certain  ;  but  that  the  holy  eye  of  God 
would  have  looked  approvingly  upon  them.,  is  equally  certain. 

This  case  of  the  Scottish  Free  Church  secession  is  the  most 
conclusive  of  all  proof  of  the  hopelessness  of  reforming  a 
corrupt  church  by  remaining  in  it.  If  all  the  influence  of 
Chalmers  and  the  powerful  body  that  sustained  him,  with  all 
the  powers  of  wealth,  talents  and  piety  which  they  wielded, 
could  not  reform  the  church,  then  when  can  such  reformation 
be  hoped  for  ?  Is  the  prospect  in  the  Am.erican  churches 
better?  The  evil  is  ten-fold  greater,  for  in  comparison  with 
the  guilt  in  these  churches  for  sustaining  the  crime  of  slavery, 
the  evil  existing  in  the  Established  Church  of  Scotland  dwindle 
into  insignificance.  The  numbers  that  seek  for  reformation 
in  the  American  churches  are  far  less,  while  the  numbers 
arrayed  against  them  are  almost  incalculably  greater.  If  then 
the  Established  Church  of  Scotland,  after  more  than  a  hund- 
red years  effort,  could  not  be  reformed  by  the  mighty  influ- 
ences of  Chalmers,  and  his  five  hundred  associates,  the  hope 
of  reformation  from  worse  evils,  and  against  immensely  greater 
odds  in  the  American  churches,  is  the  very  madness  of  folly 
20. 


226  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS  OF 


Position  or  the  New  School  Presbyterians. 

As  the  time  foi-  the  meeting  of  Dr.  Ross's  secession  con- 
vention approaches,  it  becomes  more  and  more  evident  that  a 
portion  of  the  slaveholding  members  and  ministers  of  this 
church  will  remain  with  the  North.  The  fire-eaters  of  the 
church  will  alone  withdraw,  and  as  they  are  divided  in  coun- 
sel, perhaps  not  all  of  them.  All  along  the  border  slavehold- 
ing churches  will  adhere  to  the  Northern  General  Assembly, 
at  least  for  the  present. 

As  we  have  shown  in  former  articles  there  is  nothing  what- 
ever in  the  action  of  the  late  General  Assembly  to  prevent  this. 
It  is  but  justice  to  our  New  School  brethren  to  say  that  they  do 
not  claim  to  have  made  any  advance.  Their  action  was  really 
and  avowedly  only  a  reiteration  of  the  old  testimonies.  It 
was  left  to  persons  outside  of  that  body  to  discover  the  won- 
derful progress  which  it  is  vainly  alleged  has  been  made.  It 
is  urged  by  the  Northern  portion  of  the  New  School  Presby- 
terian Church,  in  their  own  justification,  and  in  condemnation 
of  the  Southern  factionists,  that  the  latter  have  withdrawn  sim- 
ply because  the  former  have  adhered  to  the  old  landmarks. 

Now  the  diflBculty  with  both  the  Old  and  New  School  As- 
semblies has  not  been  the  want  of  a  true  testimony  on  the 
subject  of  slavery.  For  twenty  years  they  kept  a  note  in  their 
confession  of  faith,  ranking  slaveholders  with  murderers  of 
fathers  and  murderers  of  mothers,  with  whoremongers  and 
adulterers,  and  pronouncing  them  guilty  of  the  highest  kind 
of  theft.  Since  1818  slavery  has  stood  branded  on  the  min- 
utes of  the  Assemblies  as  "  utterly  inconsistent  with  the  law  of 
God,  and  totally  irreconcilable  with  the  spirit  of  the  gospel 
of  Christ."  Murder  and  piracy  are  not  more  than  this,  and 
therefore  according  to  the  testimony  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  both  branches,  these  crimes  are  no  worse  than 
slavery.  And  yet,  with  all  this  testimony  against  it,  slavery 
has  grown  with  the  growth  and  strengthened  with  the  strength 
of  both  the  Old  and  the  New  School.  With  these  burning 
words  blazing  in  their  faces,  they  have  received  the  men  guilty 
of  this  stupendous  crime  to  their  fellowship,  they  have  in- 
dorsed their  Christian  character,  and  raised  them  to  the  high- 
est posts  of  honor  in  their  gift. 

Again,  as  formerly  shown,  it  is  the  South  that  has  made 
progress  downward,  and  not  the  North  that  has  made  progress 


REV.  JOSEPH    GORDOX.  227 

upward.  It  is  the  growth  of  the  South  in  wickedness  and  not 
of  the  North  in  virtue,  that  has  brought  about  the  present  pos- 
ture of  affairs  in  the  New  School  Assembly.  Had  not  moral 
madness  seized  Dr.  Ross  and  his  apostate  adherents,  they 
might  have  remained  quietly  in  the  fold  of  the  so-called  "  Con- 
stitutional Assembly."  They  may,  indeed,  now  nestle  down  in 
that  fold  if  they  will  just  cease  uttering  their  horrible  blas- 
phemies against  the  Holy  Ghost  by  claiming  that  his  pure 
word  sanctions  the  foul  pollutions  of  slavery.  They  may  hold 
slaves  to  their  heart's  content  in  the  New  School  Presbyterian 
Church,  if  they  will  only  not  try  to  justify  the  sin  from  the 
Scriptures. 

The  bearing  of  these  remarks  on  the  question  of  a  union 
of  Free  Presbyterians  with  the  New  School  is  obvious.  There 
is  precisely  the  same  reason  for  remainlvr)  separate  that  there 
was  for  becoming  separate  at  the  first.  So  far  as  the  question 
of  slavery  is  concerned,  the  position  of  that  church  is  just  what 
it  has  always  been.  Until  they  pass  an  act  explicitly  cutting  off 
all  slaveholders  from  their  communion,  the  Free  Presbyterian 
who  returns  to  them  will  simply  stultify  himself.  He  will 
acknowledge  by  his  acts  that  he  had  no  just  cause  of  secession 
at  first,  and  that  his  course  was  schismatical  and  sinful. 

But  suppose  the  slaveholders  to  be  cut  clear  oft",  what  then? 
Grog  makers  and  sellers.  Free  Masons,  Odd  Fellows,  etc., 
remain  without  even  a  testimony  against  them.  Now  we  regard 
grog  makers  and  sellers,  and  Free-Masonry,  as  just  as  bad  as 
slavery.  These  practices  being  all  wholly  and  entirely  sinful 
admit  of  no  comparison,  and  by  God's  grace  we  will  never 
belong  to  a  church  that  does  not  at  least  testify  against  them. 

It  is  said  that  as  the  toleration  of  these  sins  was  not  the 
ground  of  our  secession  at  first,  it  ought  not  to  prevent  a 
reunion  now.  This  is  anything  but  a  logical  conclusion.  If 
these  sins  were  not  the  ground  of  secession  at  first,  it  does  not 
follow  that  they  are  not  just  grounds  of  secession.  Again, 
admitting  that  the  fact  that  drunkard-making  and  Freema- 
sonry were  no  bar  to  Christian  communion,  would  not  have 
justified  secession  ten  years  ago,  it  does  not  follow  that  that 
fact  is  not  good  ground  for  maintaining  separation  now.  Much 
light  has  been  diffused  on  these  subjects  in  that  time,  and 
there  is,  therefore,  less  extenuation  of  the  sin  of  fellowshiping 
these  evils  now  than  then. 

The  simple  and  only  question  on  this  whole  matter  is  this  : 
Is  the  position  of  the  Free  Presbyterian  Church  on  these 
subjects  right?     If  right,  as  it  is,  why  should  we  abandon  it? 


228  him   AND   WRITINGS   Oi' 

If  we  are  right  in  excluding  liquor  makers  and  dealers,  and 
the  members  of  secret  societies  from  fellowship,  then  the  New 
and  Old  School  Presbyterians  arc  wrong  in  receiving  them. 
Now,  if  union  is  wanted,  surely  it  ought  to  be  on  the  right 
platform  and  not  on  the  wrong  one.  If  the  position  of  our 
church  on  these  questions  is  right,  then  the  sin  of  schism, 
and  the  acknowledged  evils  of  division,  are  not  chargeable  on 
her,  but  on  those  who  refuse  to  unite  with  her  on  her  Scrip- 
tural platform.  If  we  stand  on  God's  truth  on  these  points, 
then  are  we  false  to  our  vows  if  we  step  off  of  that  truth  onto 
any  rotten  platform  of  error. 

Again  :  It  is  said  that  members  of  secret  societies  are  now 
in  the  Free  Presbyterian  church.  If  this  be  so,  they  are 
there  in  violation  of  our  public  testimony,  and  through  the 
faithlessness  of  the  sessions  of  the  churches  to  which  they 
belong.  They  are,  moreover,  guilty  of  the  sin  of  open  hypoc- 
risy, professing  adhesion  to  a  church  which  pronounces  their 
conduct  worthy  of  discipline,  while  by  that  conduct  they 
trample  down  the  testimony  to  which  they  profess  to  adhei'e. 
That  the  S3mods  and  General  Assembly  of  the  New  School 
Presbyterian  church  would  sanction  a  session  which  would 
expel  from  communion  a  member  of  a  secret  society,  is  to  our 
mind  very  doubtful.  The  Old  School  Synod  of  Cincinnati 
recently  compelled  a  Presbytery  and  Session  to  receive  an  Odd 
Fellow  to  communion,  and  we  know  of  no  reason  whatever  to 
suppose  that  a  New  School  Synod  would  act  differently.  To 
say  that  a  session  and  a  minister  are  just  as  free  to  discipline 
members  for  these  sins,  in  that  church,  as  they  are  in  a 
church  which,  through  its  highest  court,  has  pronounced  these 
practices  a  bar  to  communion,  is  certainly  to  talk  very  much 
at  random. 

We  doubt  not  that  the  mind  of  Christ,  to  the  Free  Presby- 
terian Church,  is  expressed  in  his  message  to  the  church  of 
Thyatira :  "  That  which  thou  hast  already,  hold  fast  till  I 
come." 


Apostasy. 

That  the  religion  which  passes  under  the  name  of  Chris^ 
tianity  in  the  slaveholding  States  has  become  utterly  corrupt 
and  spurious  ;  and  that  the  mass  of  the  nominal  Christians  of 
that  section    have   totally   apostatized,  is    becoming  evident 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  229 

beyond  all  reasonable  doubt.  This  corruption  and  apostasy- 
are  the  work  of  slavery.  The  "  little  leaven  has  leavened  the 
whole  lump."  With  a  few  exceptions,  the  professing  Chris- 
tians of  the  slave  States  give  the  most  overwhelming  evidence 
that  they  have  no  part  or  lot  in  the  religion  and  spirit  of  Jesus. 
The  vast  majority  of  the  so-called  churches  of  that  section  of 
the  country  have  just  as  little  claim  to  the  character  of  true 
churches  of  Christ  as  the  church  of  Home.  This  is  not  the 
judgment  of  ccnsoriousness,  but  a  calm  and  sad  conviction 
forced  upon  us  by  the  most  undubitable  evidence.  Let  us 
look  a  little  at  this  evidence. 

In  the  first  place,  most  of  the  nominal  Christians  in  the 
South  have  become  active  propagandists  of  slavery.  They  are 
laboring  with  the  rest  of  the  Southern  people  to  extend  and 
perpetuate  what  Dr.  Breckinridge  once  called  "  the  most  atro- 
cious of  all  human  institutions."  They  are  not  merely  pas- 
sive spectators  of  the  efforts  of  others  in  this  work,  but 
actively  co-operate  therein.  They  no  longer  silently  tolerate 
slavery  as  an  evil  which  they  deplore,  but  know  not  how  to 
get  rid  of;  but  they  cherish  it  as  a  blessing,  and  seek  at  the 
cost  of  civil  war  to  extend  slavery  indefinitely  over  free  terri- 
tory. Among  the  most  active  promoters  and  participants  in 
the  infernal  outrages  of  the  slaveholders  in  Kansas,  are  the 
missionaries  of  the  Southern  Methodist  Church.  Professed 
ministers  of  the  gospel  have  taken  a  leading  part  in  planning 
and  executing  the  murderous  forays  of  the  3Iissourians  on 
the  defenseless  citizens  of  that  unhappy  territory.  And  the 
religious  press  and  the  pulpits  of  the  South  silently  indorse 
or  openly  justify  this  matchless  villainy.  The  religion  of 
this  section  has  no  rebuke  for  arson,  robbery,  rape  and  mur- 
der, when  perpetrated  on  the  Free  State  settlers  of  Kansas ; 
but,  on  the  contrary,  cheers  on  the  vile  miscreants  by  whom 
these  crimes  are  perpetrated. 

The  religionists  of  the  South  are  also  among  the  most 
unscrupulous  and  lying  slanderers  of  those  who  are  seeking 
by  peaceful  and  proper  means  to  put  an  end  to  those  crimes. 
The  basest  misrepresentations  and  the  foulest  lies,  in  regard 
to  the  measures  and  candidates  of  the  political  party  that  is 
seeking  to  stay  the  progress  of  the  overflowing  scourge  of 
slavery,  that  we  have  seen  during  the  present  campaign,  we 
have  seen  in  Southern  religious  newspapers.  There  is  no 
epithet  of  abuse  against  the  antislavery  people  of  the  coun- 
try too  low  and  vile  for  them  to  repeat,  and  no  political  false- 
hood against  the  Republican  candidates,  too  absurd  and  pal- 


230  LIFE   A3SID   WRITINGS   OF 

pable  for  them  to  utter.  Their  whole  influence  is  thus  thrown 
with  the  propagandists  of  slavery  and  against  those  who  seek 
its  present  restriction  and  final  extinction. 

The  outrage  upon  Mr.  Sumner — an  outrage  of  which  it  is 
hard  to  say  whether  the  meanness  or  the  wickedness  is  great- 
est— is  also  sanctioned  by  the  mass  of  Southern  professors  of 
religion.  But  one  of  all  the  religious  papers  in  the  South, 
so  far  us  we  know,  has  uttered  a  word  in  condemnation  of 
that  infamous  act ;  and  the  editor  of  that  paper  (the  Lutheran 
Observer,  of  Baltimore)  has  been  denounced  for  so  doing  by 
professing  Christians,  and  threatened  with  assassination.  The 
vast  majority  of  all  the  nominal  Christians  of  that  apostate 
region  silently  or  openly  approve  the  deed.  A  minister  of 
the  gospel  has  just  been  driven  from  Charleston,  South  Caro- 
lina, for  refusing  to  sanction  it. 

Another  item  of  evidence  upon  this  subject  will  be  found 
in  the  article  from  the  St.  Louis  Christian  Advocate,  on  our 
first  page.  In  that  article  the  settlement  of  pious,  industri- 
ous and  peaceable  people  (as  the  Welsh  are  generally  known 
to  be)  is  openly  denounced,  and  mob  violence  virtually 
invoked  on  their  heads,  simply  because  they  are  unfriendly  to 
the  diabolical  system  of  Southern  slavery.  The  editor  scents 
danger  to  the  beloved  peculiar  institution  as  the  raven  scents 
carrion,  and  croaks  as  dismally  as  that  filthy  bird,  over  the 
prospects  of  the  death  of  slavery. 

It  is  evident  from  these,  and  a  thousand  similar  facts  which 
might  be  adduced,  that  the  attitude  of  the  Southern  churches 
and  professors  of  religion  toward  the  "sum  of  villainies,"  has 
totally  changed  within  a  few  years.  Formerly,  with  few 
exceptions,  they  admitted  it  was  an  evil,  professed  to  deplore 
its  existence,  but  could  not  see  how  to  get  rid  of  it,  and  were, 
therefore,  reluctantly  compelled  to  tolerate  it  for  the  time 
being.  Now  they  carefully  cherish  it  as  a  blessing,  claim  for 
it  the  full  sanction  of  the  word  of  God,  labor  to  extend  it 
over  our  free  territory,  and  sanction  all  the  brutalities  which 
it  perpetrates  in  Kansas,  Washington,  Mobile,  and  elsewhere. 

The  question  then  arises,  is  a  religion  which  justifies  and 
cherishes  American  slavery,  and  which  will  extend  it  over  all 
this  continent  and  perpetuate  its  existence  through  all  time,  the 
religion  of  Jesus  Christ?  Then  does  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ  sanction,  cherish,  tend  to  extend  and  perpetuate  rob- 
bery, man-theft,  concubinage,  adultery,  arson,  rape  and  mur- 
der. To  say  so  is  to  blaspheme  the  Son  of  God.  Are  those 
true  and  living  followers  of  the  Divine  Redeemer,  who  say  to 


EEV.   JOSEPH    GORDON.  231 

Brooks,  Atcliison,  String-fellow,  and  their  followers,  Well  done 
good  and  faithful  servant?  If  so,  then  Christians  and  assas- 
sins are  in  nothing  essentially  different.  Just  as  well  might 
we  regard  Beelzebub  an  angel  of  light,  as  to  recognize  as  true 
followers  and  ministers  of  Christ,  those  who  aid,  abet,  and 
approve  and  perpetuate  the  system  of  slavery  and  the  crimes 
it  is  now  enacting  in  Kansas,  Washington  and  all  the  South. 
The  popular  religion  of  the  South  is  a  devilish  counterfeit  of 
Christianity,  and  the  mass  of  its  professors  utterly  apostate. 
We  speak  only  of  the  majority.  That  there  may  be  seven 
thousand  or  more  in  the  South  who  have  not  bowed  the  knee 
to  Baal,  we  should  be  very  sorry  to  doubt. 

If  such  be  the  true  character  of  slaveholding  churches,  and 
a  slavery  extending  religion,  it  is  not  hard  to  determine  what 
attitude  true  Christians  should  maintain  toward  them.  They 
should  he  utterly  disfelloicshiped.  They  can  never  be 
reformed.  Backsliders  may  be  reclaimed,  but  apostates 
never.  When  the  mass  of  a  human  body  is  utterly  corrupted 
with  disease,  it  is  inevitably  dead,  notwithstanding  there  may 
be  a  few  sound  spots  at  the  extremities.  When  meat  is  thor- 
oughly rotten,  salt  can  not  restore  it.  God  has  still  a  people 
in  Babylon,  but  she  is,  notwithstanding,  "the  hold  of  every 
foul  spirit,  and  the  cage  of  every  unclean  and  hateful  bird," 
and  God's  people  are  imperatively  commanded  to  come  out  of 
her.  The  few  faithful  ones  that  may  be  left  in  the  Southern 
churches  can  no  more  redeem  them  from  apostasy  and 
destruction,  than  can  the  few  in  the  church  of  Rome. 

Another  consideration  ought  to  be  solemnly  pondered  by 
those  Northern  Christians  who  are  in  fellowship  with  this 
great  Southern  apostasy.  The  leaven  of  unrlghtivmness  is  still 
working^  and  it  may^  ere  long,  reach  and  corrupt  them.  That 
it  has  corrupted  many  of  the  free  States  already,  there  is  sad 
evidence  to  believe.  Border  ruffianism  with  its  arson,  horse- 
theft,  rape  and  murder,  has  its  friends  and  supporters  among 
northern  as  well  as  Southern  professors  of  religion.  "A  little 
leaven  leaveneth  the  whole  lump."  The  downward  course  of 
the  slaveholding  churches  of  this  land,  like  that  of  the  coun- 
try, is  swift  and  steady.  "  Evil  men  and  seducers  shall  wax 
worse  and  worse,  deceiving  and  being  deceived."  "  I]vil  com- 
munications corrupt  good  manners."  There  is  no  safety  for 
true  Christians  in  these  ecclesiastical  bodies,  but  in  obeying 
the  command  of  God.  "  Come  out  from  among  them,  and  be 
ye  separate,  and  touch  not  the  unclean  thing,  and  I  will 
receive  you  saith  the  Lord." 


232  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 


MISCELLANEOUS  AETICLES- 


Another  Benevolent  Society  Needed. 

A  recent  number  of  tlie  Neio  York  Tribune  suggests 
another  benevolent  society,  in  addition  to  the  many  that  now 
hold  their  anniversaries  in  New  York  in  the  month  of  May. 
Its  object  shall  be  to  promote  the  welfare  of  the  remains  of 
the  Indian  tribes  in  our  country,  and  to  try  to  save  them  from 
extermination.  The  suggestion  is  worthy  of  consideration 
by  the  benevolent.  Following  the  example  of  the  Tribune, 
we  suggest  that  still  another  society  is  needed  for  a  purpose 
more  feasible,  if  not  more  important,  than  the  one  proposed 
above.  That  is  for  colonizing  the  poor  laborers  of  the  Eastern 
cities,  and  settling  them  on  the  unoccupied  lands  of  the  West. 
Let  us  look  at  some  of  the  considerations  bearing  on  this 
scheme. 

It  is  a  fact  of  great  importance  that  the  equilibrium 
between  the  demand  and  supply  of  labor  in  this  country  is 
greatly  disturbed.  The  supply  exceeds  the  demand  in  the 
Eastern  cities,  while  in  the  West,  the  demand  is  greatly  in 
advance  of  the  supply.  To  restore  the  equilibrium  is  essen- 
tially necessary  to  a  healthful  condition  of  labor  and  capital. 
Then  the  high  price  and  ready  sale  which  all  articles  of  food 
command,  and  the  great  scarcity  of  food  in  some  parts  of  the 
country,  show  that  too  little  labor  is  devoted  to  the  culture  of 
the  soil,  and  too  much  to  other  pursuits.  Few  kinds  of  labor 
now  pay  better  than  agriculture,  and  this  will  undoubtedly 
continue  to  be  the  case  for  many  years  to  come. 

Again,  it  is  notoriously  and  sadly  true  that  the  surplus  of 
laborers  in  the  large  cities  tends  not  only  to  cheapen  labor, 
but  to  cheapen  life,  and  also  to  multiply  crime  and  pauperism. 
The  capitalist  of  New  York  who  hires  labor  at  one  notch 
above  starvation  point,  as  really  works  up  his  employees  into 
material  for  his  Fifth  Avenue  palace,  as  the  Southern  planter 
converts  his  negroes  into  rice  and  cotton.     The  difference  is 


REV.  JOSEPH   GORDON.  233 

in  the  mode  of  operation,  not  in  the  results.  From  the  same 
source,  it  is  well  known,  springs  by  far  the  largest  amount  of 
the  crime  and  pauperism  so  rife  in  our  large  cities.  For  one 
man  who  takes  to  thieving  and  other  crimes  through  sheer 
depravity  (if  this  ever  occurs)  doubtless  ninety-nine  are 
driven  to  it  by  want.  By  the  utmost  tension  of  toil  con- 
tinued through  seven  days  of  the  week,  many  a  poor  laborer 
is  barely  able  to  keep  together  the  souls  and  bodies  of  him- 
self and  his  family.  If  employment  fails,  or  sickness  over- 
takes him,  beggary  or  theft  is  all  that  is  left  for  him  and  his 
children.  Then  the  utter  joylessness  of  the  life  he  is  thus 
compelled  to  lead,  tempts  many  a  poor  victim  to'  the  rum 
shop  to  drown  his  sorrows  in  the  intoxicating  bowl,  while  the 
gnawings  of  hunger  drive  his  daughters  to  the  loathsome  life 
of  the  prostitute. 

The  tendency  of  this  state  of  things  is  to  perpetuate  itself, 
and  to  aggravate  all  its  worst  evils.  It  is  a  well  known  law  of 
population  that  the  poor  multiply  faster  than  the  rich.  The 
son  is  born  to  the  condition  of  the  father,  or  to  a  condition 
growing  gradually  worse,  as  population  increases.  And  in 
addition  to  this  natural  increase,  the  tide  of  foreign  emigra- 
tion, sweeping  like  the  Gulf  Stream  across  the  Atlantic,  is 
adding  its  thousands  monthly  to  the  already  overstocked 
market  of  city  labor. 

Thus  the  evil  has  gone  on  increasing  until  it  has  already 
reached  a  magnitude  before  which  society  stands  appalled. 
If  not  arrested  it  will  increase  till  the  very  foundations  of 
society  are  upheaved,  and  the  whole  fabric  thrown  into  chaotic 
and  terrible  ruin.  It  will  be  a  fearful  day  to  the  grasping 
capitalists  as  well  as  to  the  Southern  oppressor  when  the 
explosion  comes,  as  come  it  must,  and  will,  if  the  present 
order  of  things  continues. 

Now  the  remedy  we  propose  for  all  this  is  the  organization 
of  a  society  for  the  purpose  already  specified — that  of  colo- 
nizing these  surplus  laborers  on  the  unoccupied  lands  of  the 
West.  That  this  work  must  be  done — if  done  at  all — by  a 
society,  or  some  agency  other  than  that  of  the  laborers  them- 
selves, is  very  certain.  It  is  utterly  impossible  for  men  who 
are  compelled  to  toil  all  the  time  for  barely  enough  to  pur- 
chase the  plainest  food  and  clothing,  ever  to  accumulate 
enough  means  for  their  own  removal.  By  the  cheapest  mode 
that  can  be  adopted,  it  still  costs  something  to  travel.  It  will 
cost  more  to  purchase  land,  even  at  the  low  price  of  $1  25 
per  acre,  and  more  still  to  fence  it,  to  build  a  cabin,  to  buy 


234  LIFE   A^D   WRITINGS    OP 

farming  tools,  seed  for  the  first  crop,  and  food  for  the  family 
while  that  crop  is  growing.  And,  although,  the  whole  amount 
needed  for  all  these  purposes  by  each  family  is  comparatively 
small,  it  is  still  utterly  beyond  the  reach  of  those  who  are 
compelled  to  toil,  day  by  day,  for  a  hare  subsistence.  One 
hundred  dollars  is  a  fabulous  sum  to  him  who  has  nothing, 
and  who  is  never  able  to  have  five  dollars  of  his  earnings  at 
one  time. 

Our  plan,  then,  is  this:  Let  a  society  be  formed  and  char- 
tered with  power  to  raise  a  certain  amount  of  capital.  Let 
this  society  purchase  lands  in  large  or  small  quantities, 
wherever  it  can  buy  them  cheap.  Let  it  donate  ten,  twenty, 
fifty,  seventy-five,  one  hundred,  or  one  hundred  and  sixty 
acres,  to  each  poor  laborer  who  will  agree  to  live  on  it  and 
cultivate  it.  Let  the  society  furnish  him  the  means  of  moving 
his  family,  building  his  house,  buying  his  tools,  seed,  etc. 
Let  the  land  be  donated  on  condition  that  the  man  live  on  it 
and  cultivate  it  a  certain  number  of  years ;  that  he  abstain 
from  all  use  of  intoxicating  liquors,  and  other  gross  vices. 
The  land,  tools,  etc.,  to  be  forfeited  by  him  and  revert  to  the 
society  if  any  of  these  conditions  are  violated.  Let  the 
society  reserve  in  its  own  possession  every  second,  third, 
fourth  and  fifth  section,  as  the  case  may  be.  And  let  the 
most  intelligent,  virtuous  and  thrifty  of  the  very  poor  labor- 
ers be  selected  as  the  first  settlers. 

We  may  now  contemplate  far  a  moment  the  working  of  the 
scheme,  Every  laborer  taken  from  the  city  leaves  his  place 
there  for  some  one  else.  Slowly  at  first,  more  rapidly  after- 
ward, as  the  surplus  labor  is  drawn  off",  and  the  number  of 
paupers  and  criminals,  made  such  by  want,  is  diminished. 
They  can  find  work  and  earn  bread.  The  prices  of  labor  in 
the  city,  as  the  supply  decreases,  will  go  up  till  they  reach  the 
true  standard.  Gradually  but  surely  the  dens  of  pauperism 
and  infamy  will  be  cleared  of  their  inmates.  The  children  of 
the  poor  as  they  grow  up,  find  work  that  will  enable  them  to 
buy  not  only  the  necessaries,  but  some  of  the  luxuries  of  life, 
thus  having  been  removed,  to  a  great  extent  from  the  temptation 
to  steal,  drink  rum  and  commit  whoredom.  If  the  old  paupers 
and  criminals  prove  irreclaimable,  they  would  soon  die  off". 
Thus,  as  the  scheme  is  worked  out,  the  cities  will  be  gradually 
rid  of  all  the  crime  and  pauperism  that  result  from  want  of 
work  and  food,  which  is  probably  nine-tenths  of  the  whole. 

Turn  we  now  to  the  other  scene  of  the  operations.  On  the 
broad  prairies  and  under  the  blue  sky  of  the  mighty  West, 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  235 

are  placed  thousands  of  the  poor,  crushed  toilers  of  the  city 
with  the  means  of  their  own  sure  and  rapid  elevation  in  their 
own  hands,  and  with  the  strongest  motives  of  a  worldly  char- 
acter that  can  be  brought  to  bear  on  human  beings,  to  impel 
them  to  a  life  of  industry,  thrift  and  virtue.  Their  labor  in 
tilling  the  soil  pays  well  from  the  first.  A  high  price  and 
ready  sale  for  all  they  can  produce  are  at  their  command.  By 
degrees  they  gather  round  them  the  comforts  of  life.  Then 
follow  in  sure  succession  the  school-house,  the  book,  the  news- 
paper, the  meeting-house,  and  other  means  of  intellectual  and 
moral  improvement.  It  is  absolutely  certain  that  the  great 
majority  of  the  poor  emigrants,  under  these  circumstances, 
would  rise  rapidly,  morally,  socially  and  intellectually. 

By  the  improvement  of  their  lands,  those  portions  reserved 
by  the  society  would  rapidly  enhance  in  value.  Settlements 
of  farmers  soon  call  for  the  mechanics,  the  merchants,  phy- 
sicians, etc.  Some  of  the  reserved  lands  would  serve  as  sites 
for  the  villages  that  would  grow  up.  Through  their  increase 
in  value  they  would  sell  for  enough  to  replenish  the  treasury 
of  the  society,  and  thus  enable  it  to  repeat  the  process  of  colo- 
nization year  by  year.  But  if  this  should  not  be  the  case,  and 
it  should  all  be  a  work  of  benevolence,  we  know  of  none 
more  likely  to  be  blessed  of  God,  or  to  yield  richer  fruit. 

An  objection  or  two  may  be  noticed  here.  It  will  be  said, 
perhaps,  that  the  poor  laborer  of  the  city  will  not  go  West. 
That  can  be  ascertained  in  advance  of  the  organization  of  the 
society,  by  a  little  inquiry  on  the  part  of  those  disposed  to  act 
in  the  matter.  The  offer  can  be  made  them,  and  if  they  do 
refuse,  their  future  sufferings  and  crimes  will  be  doubly 
chargeable  on  themselves  and  society  will  be  in  a  great  meas- 
use  freed  from  whatever  blame  now  attaches  to  it  for  these 
crimes  and  sufferings.  But  the  objection  is  without  any  foun 
dation.  There  is  not  the  least  doubt  that  the  vast  majority 
of  the  best  poor  of  the  cities  would  hail  the  offering  with 
unspeakable  joy. 

It  may  be  objected  again  that  many  who  would  go,  would 
prove  lazy  and  worthless,  and  starve  after  they  were  taken 
"West.  That  this  would  be  the  case  with  a  few,  and  only  a 
few,  may  be  expected.  But  what  is  lost?  Their  lands  would 
revert  to  the  society,  to  be  given  to  others  more  worthy.  Then 
it  is  starvation  or  something  worse,  if  they  stay  where  they 
now  are.  Surely  they  may  as  well  starve,  if  starve  they  will, 
in  the  open  country,  with  God's  pure  air  and  sunlight  around 
them,  as  starve  and  suffocate  both,  in  the  subterranean  dens 


236  LIFE    AND   WRITINGS    OF 

and  styes  where  they  now  burrow  and  wallow  in  filth,  and 
stench,  and  darkness. 

We  have  not  space  in  this  article  to  anticipate  and  reply  to 
other  objections. 

Of  the  feasibility  of  this  scheme  we  have  no  doubt.  The 
work  of  colonizing  poor  children  in  the  West  is  now  prose- 
cuted by  a  society  in  New  York,  with  marked  success.  This 
work  is  kindred  to  the  one  we  propose,  although  our  plan  is 
far  more  radical  and  thorough.  Instead  of  merely  removing 
children  we  propose  to  remove  whole  families.  Instead  of 
taking  them  to  the  homes  of  others  in  the  West,  our  plan  is 
to  give  them  the  means  of  making  homes  for  themselves. 
Instead  of  trying  to  remove  a  few  of  the  results  growing  out 
of  the  evil  condition  of  the  poor  in  the  cities,  the  scheme  we 
propose,  will  go  down  to  the  cause  of  those  evils  and  remove 
that.  That  this  work  can  be  done  we  are  sure.  We  wish  we 
could  say  with  equal  confidence  that  it  will  be  done. 

The  motives  that  should  prompt  to  this  work  lie  on  the 
surface,  open  to  the  view  of  all.  We  may  be  pardoned,  how- 
ever, for  briefly  alluding  to  one  of  the  mighty  forces  as  ad- 
dressed to  the  Christian.  The  pauperism  and  crime  growing 
out  of  the  surplus  of  poor  laborers  in  the  cities  is  one  of  the 
most  difficult  and  appalling  problems  presented  for  solution 
to  modern  civilized  society.  The  means  hitherto  employed 
by  the  churches  to  reach  and  elevate  these  classes,  have  been 
wholly  inadequate,  and  have  signally  failed.  Many  of  the 
poor  of  the  cities  are  as  stark  heathen  as  ever  danced  around 
a  human  sacrifice  in  the  heart  of  India  or  Africa.  The  fact 
that  they  are  almost  wholly  uncared  for  by  the  churches  which 
expend  millions  for  the  salvation  of  foreign  heathen,  has  been 
the  standing  reproach  of  the  church,  and  the  perpetual  scoif 
of  the  infidel.  Now  the  scheme  we  propose  will  be  adopted 
and  carried  out  by  Christian  benevolence,  if  at  all.  It  will, 
therefore,  redound  to  the  glory  of  our  holy  religion  and  of  its 
Divine  Author,  and  to  the  honor  of  the  Church  of  God.  It 
will  take  off  the  reproach  that  has  lain  as  a  mountain  on  the 
bosom  of  the  church.  It  will  add  beyond  calculation  to  her 
moral  power.  It  will  thus  tend  mightily  to  hasten  the  time 
when  "  the  earth  shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord 
and  nothing  shall  hurt  or  destroy  in  all  his  holy  mountain." 


REV.   JOSEPH   GOKDON.  23? 

Publication  op  the  American  Keform  Tract  and  Book 

Society. 

We  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  several  new  publications 
from  the  corresponding  secretary  of  this  Society.  One  of 
them  is  a  Sabbath-school  book  of  134  pages,  entitled  : 

"  A  Home  at  the  South,  or  Two  Years  at    Uncle   Wari'eii's.'' 

This  is  another  in  the  series  of  antislavery  Sabbath-school 
books  which  this  society  is  issuing.  It  is  a  pleasant  and 
attractive  story.  The  book,  like  other  issues  of  the  society, 
is  deeply  religious  in  its  tone.  Sympathy  for  the  slave,  and 
efforts  for  his  emancipation,  are  represented  as  the  offspring 
of  true  religion — as  the  fruit  of  love  in  the  heart  for  the 
Saviour.  This  is  the  true  teaching.  The  abolitionism  of 
some  people  constitutes  their  religion.  They  profess  a  strong 
and  often  uncharitable  zeal  for  the  freedom  of  the  slave, 
v/hile  the  whole  current  of  their  lives  bears  testimony  that 
they  are  governed  by  the  same  spirit  and  principles  that 
actuate  the  slaveholder.  True  zeal  for  the  cause  of  the  slave's 
emancipation—- the  zeal  that  will  stand  trials  and  persecu- 
tions— -can  be  found  only  in  the  truly  regenerated  heart.  At 
the  same  time  every  heart  that  is  truly  regenerated  toill  have 
this  zeal.  It  is  impossible  for  a  true  Christian  not  to  feel  for 
the  poor,  and  not  ''  to  try  to  remember  those  in  bonds  as 
bound  with  them."  The  pretended  piety,  in  this  land  espe- 
cially, which  is  utterly  indifferent  to  the  condition  of  three 
millions  of  slaves,  is,  of  necessity,  spurious,  whatever  zeal  for 
the  conversion  of  men  and  the  glory  of  God  it  may  affect. 
We  are  glad  to  see  these  truths  set  forth  in  this  work.  The 
book  also  illustrates  the  declaration  of  the  Saviour,  "  Out  of 
the  mouths  of  babes  and  sucklings  hast  thou  perfected  praise." 

We  have  also  received  three  tracts  from  the  society  entitled 
respectively,  '•  Have  we  any  need  of  the  Bible."  "  Is  God 
Everybody  and  Everybody  God."  "  Did  the  World  Make 
Itself."  These  tracts  are  an  able  and  spirited  discussion  of 
the  themes  indicated  in  their  titles.  They  are  intended  and 
well  adapted  to  meet  some  of  the  most  popular  and  prevalent 
forms  of  infidelity  and  atheism  of  the  present  day.  The 
exposition  of  the  folly  and  impiety  of  Pantheism  is  partic- 
ularly good.  The  writer  shows  conclusively  of  this  system, 
to  use  his  own  language,  that  "it  has  rotted  and  putrified 
among  the  worshipers  of  cats  and  monkeys,  and  holy  bulls, 
and  bits  of  sticks  and  stones,  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges,  for 
more   than  two  thousand   years,  yet  is  now  hooked  up  out  of 


238  LIFE    AND    WRITINGS     OF 

its  dunghill,  and  hawked  about  among  Christian  people  as  a 
prime  new  discovery  of  modern  philosophy  for  getting  rid  of 
Almighty  God." 

The  Reform  Tract  and  Book  Society  is  doing  good  service 
to  the  cause  of  truth  in  the  issue  of  these  tracts.  The  cur- 
rent infidelity  of  our  time  is  specious  and  dangerous,  at  the 
same  time  that  it  is  exceedingly  superficial,  and  in  many  of 
its  phases  unspeakably  absurd.  It  is  dangerous,  not  because 
of  any  real  force  in  its  arguments,  but  because  the  human 
mind,  especially  in  the  young,  is  thoughtless,  and  averse  to 
careful  investigations  after  truth,  and  because  the  human 
heart  in  its  carnal  state  is  averse  to  truth.  To  expose  clearly 
the  sophistry,  absurdity  and  falsehood  of  the  theories  which 
men  adopt  to  get  rid  of  the  Bible  is  a  most  useful  and  import- 
ant work.  This  work  is  well  done  by  the  writer  of  these 
tracts  on  the  points  which  they  discuss. 

The  Eeform  Tract  and  Book  Society  is  going  steadily  for- 
ward in  its  great  work.     It  deserves  the  prayers  and  contri- 
'  butions  of  all  friends  of  truth  and  richt. 


What  is  a  Religious  Newspaper. 

Some  of  our  exchanges  are  discussing  this  question  with 
considerable  warmth.  A  few  of  them  that  claim  to  be  reli- 
gious journals  themselves,  occasionally  exhibit  a  spirit  which 
is  not  a  very  beautiful  exemplification  of  that  religion,  the 
essential  element  of  which  is  charity  or  love.  This  discussion 
is  mainly  in  the  form  of  an  attack  on  the  New  York  Indcpcn- 
fhnf,  which  is  read  out  of  the  list  of  religious  journals 
because  it  devotes  a  portion  of  its  space  to  questions  of  poli- 
tics and  humanity.  It  is  assumed  that  politics  and  religion 
are  two  things  entirely,  and  totally  separate  and  distinct;  and 
that  a  religious  newspaper  is  out  of  its  sphere,  and  loses  its 
character  when  it  meddles  in  any  way  with  political  subjects. 

This  question  is  one  of  great  importance,  but  one  which 
is,  we  think,  not  hard  to  settle.  The  proper  business  of  a 
religious  newspaper  is  to  teach  religion.  Its  appropriate 
work  is  to  expound  the  theory  and  enforce  the  duties  of  true 
piety.  Now,  if  we  know  what  religion  is,  we  can  be  at  no 
loss  to  know  what  a  religious  newspaper  is.  Fortunately  we 
have  a  most  explicit  and  beautiful  definition  of  religion  in 
the  word  of  God  ; 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDOK.  239 

"  Pure  religion,  and  undefiled  before  God  and  the  Father, 
is  this,  to  visit  the  fatherless  and  widows  in  their  affliction,  to 
keep  himself  unspotted  from  the  world."     James  1  :  27. 

Certainly  a  newspaper  which  breathes  the  spirit  of  this 
passage,  and  inculcates  the  duties  therein  enjoined,  is  religious 
in  the  only  true  sense. 

But  we  have  another  inspired  definition  of  true  religion 
even  more  summary  and  comprehensive  than  this  : 

"  Therefore  all  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should 
do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them,  for  this  is  the  law  and  the 
prophets."     Matt.  7  :  12. 

This  is  the  sum  of  all  duty  between  human  beings.  The 
other  great  duty  of  true  religion  is  to  love  the  Lord  with  all 
the  heart.  That  is  surely  a  truly  religious  journal  which 
inculcates  the  duty  of  supreme  love  to  God  and  of  equal  love 
to  men.  But  the  evidence  of  love  to  God  is  love  to  men. 
"  If  ye  love  me,"  says  Jesus  Christ,  "ye  will  keep  my  com- 
mandments ;  and  this  is  my  commandment  that  ye  love  one 
another." 

With  these  fundamental  and  indisputable  principles  before 
us  we  are  prepared  to  consider  the  question  whether  it  is 
within  the  province  of  a  religious  journal  to  meddle  with 
what  are  called  secular  and  political  questions.  By  visiting 
the  fatherless  and  widows  we  are  to  understand  the  general 
duties  of  benevolence  and  love  to  all  human  beings,  with 
especial  reference  to  the  weak,  and  poor,  and  afflicted.  It  is 
surely  and  strictly  a  religious  work  to  comfort  the  distressed, 
to  relieve  the  suffering,  to  deliver  the  oppressed,  to  establish 
and  execute  justice  and  judgment  among  men.  Hence  it  is 
the  appropriate  work  of  a  religious  newspaper  to  point  out 
and  enforce  these  duties.  But  the  performance  of  these  offices 
of  justice  and  love  very  often  i-equires  political  action.  Widows 
and  fatherless  children  are  as  often  wronged  under  the  forms 
of  the  law  as  in  any  other  way.  Shall  the  Christian,  there- 
fore, not  visit  them  in  their  affliction,  and  try  to  relieve  them 
lest  he  shall  be  compelled  to  come  in  contact  with  political 
institutions?  The  protection  of  the  weak  and  the  delivery  of 
the  wronged  and  oppressed,  is  the  work  for  which  civil  gov- 
ernments are  instituted.  But  they  are  often  prostituted  to 
the  very  opposite  purpose.  Shall  the  religious  newspaper, 
then,  not  expose  the  wrong  and  demand  the  right  because  the 
questions  are  mixed  up  with  politics  ?  Was  William  Wilber- 
force  any  less  a  devoted  Christian  because  he  sat  in  Parliament 
and  used  every  honorable  means  to  accomplish  the  suppression 


240  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

of  the  African  slave-trade,  and  the  abolition  of  slavery  by 
political  action  ?  Was  Dr.  Beecher  any  more  out  of  his 
sphere,  as  a  minister  when  he  urged  the  suppression  of  liquor- 
selling  by  law,  than  when  he  urged  moral  suasion  against  the 
traffic  ? 

The  truth  is  to  the  true  Christian  there  is  no  act  of  his  life 
that  is  exclusively  secular  or  exclusively  political.  V/haho- 
ever  he  does,  he  does  for  the  glory  of  God.  He  buys  and  sells 
and  votes  for  this  end,  just  as  much  as  he  prays  and  preaches 
for  it.  His  Bible  teaches  him  not  only  that  it  is  his  duty  so 
to  do,  but  also  instructs  him  how  he  may  do  it.  But  it  is 
the  business  of  the  minister  of  the  gospel  and  of  the  religious 
newspaper  to  explain  the  Bible,  and  therefore  just  as  much  in 
their  proper  province  to  show  men  liow  they  may  wofefor  God's 
glory  as  how  to  pray  acceptably. 

The  idea  that  politics  and  religion  should  be  kept  entirely- 
separate  is  practical  atheism.  God's  law  is  the  supreme  rule 
of  man's  conduct  cveryxvliere.  It  is  to  be  obeyed  in  all  our 
actions  ;  in  those  which  are  secular  and  political,  as  well  as  in 
those  more  distinctively  religious.  God  has  made  no  division 
of  authority  with  human  governments  or  political  parties.  He 
has  not  set  over  one  part  of  the  domain  of  human  conduct  to 
their  exclusive  control,  and  kept  another  part  for  himself. 
Civil  government  and  political  parties  have  but  one  proper 
function,  and  that  is  to  execute  the  will  of  God.  When  they 
fail  to  do  this  they  ought  to  be  abolished.  When  they  oppose 
their  edicts  to  the  law  of  God,  the  Christian  must  disobey  and 
oppose  them  on  peril  of  his  soul's  salvation.  Hence  it  is 
indisputably  the  duty  of  the  Christian  minister  and  the  reli- 
gious journal  to  show  men  when  the  enactments  of  civil  gov- 
ernments, and  the  measures  of  political  parties  are  in  conflict 
with  God's  law,  and  to  warn  them  against  obeying  those 
enactments  and  supporting  these  measures.  They  should 
unceasingly  urge  the  duty  of  obeying  God  rather  than  man, 
and  they  are  false  and  faithless  to  their  trust  when  they  fail 
to  do  so. 

We  do  not  hold  that  political  questions  should  occupy  all, 
or  even  the  greater  part  of  the  attention  of  religious  teachers 
and  journals.  The  great  object  of  Christian  labor  in  all 
departments  is  the  conversion  and  sanctification  of  men.  To 
make  mankind  wise  and  good,  and  thus  glorify  God,  is  the  one 
great  end  of  all  religious  instrumentalities  and  efforts.  But 
the  first  step  toward  making  men  good  is  to  convince  them  of 
sin.     This  can  be  done  only  by  showing  that  their  conduct  is 


REV.  JOSEPH  GORDON.  241 

in  violation  of  God's  law;  by  placing  their  lives  alongside  of 
its  requirements  and  thus  exhibiting  the  conflict  between  them. 
Now  if  a  man's  besetting  and  grossest  sins  are  political  villain- 
ies, they  should  be  held  up  in  all  their  blackness,  and  the 
severest  judgment  of  God  should  be  denounced  against  them. 
No  man  is  a  symmetrical  Christian  whose  whole  heart  and  life 
are  not  governed  by  the  Divine  law.  The  true  Christian  as 
already  remarked,  will  make  his  business  and  his  politics  a 
part  of  his  religion.  But  how  shall  he  do  this  unless  he 
understands  the  requirements  of  God's  law  on  those  subjects? 
And  whose  business  is  it  to  expound  to  him  the  claims  of  that 
law,  if  it  is  not  the  business  of  the  minister  of  the  gospel  and 
the  religious  editor?  The  really  religious  journal  will  strive 
"  to  declare  the  ^chole  counsel  of  God  ;  "  and  those  professedly 
religious  journals  which  teach  that  it  is  no  matter  what  a  man 
does  politically,  if  he  only  attends  church  and  prays  with 
fervency,  are  teaching  the  worst  and  most  dangerous  form  of 
irrelio-ion. 


Cheap  Newspapers. 

Low  priced  articles  are  usually  the  dearest  that  people  can  buy. 
A  prudent  dealer  pays  far  more  regard  to  the  quality  than 
to  the  price  of  his  purchases.  An  article  of  the  best  quality 
is  generally  the  cheapest,  though  it  may  cost  twice  as  much  as 
one  of  an  inferior  quality.  While  the  price  is  only  double 
the  service  will  usually  be  fourfold.  This  will  be  found  true 
as  a  general  rule  of  articles  of  dress,  agricultural  and  mechan- 
ical implements,  and,  in  short,  of  everything  of  a  material 
character. 

Still  more  true  and  important  is  this  rule  when  applied  to 
that  which  pertains  to  our  mental  and  moral  interests.  Here 
eminently  quality  is  the  one  thing  all-important.  The  price, 
with  a  wise  man,  will  be  altogether  a  secondary  consideration. 
The  books  that  he  reads,  the  teachers  that  "he  employs  for 
himself  or  his  children,  will  be  the  best  within  his  reach. 
When  the  formation  of  the  character  and  even  the  eternal 
destiny  of  the  soul  may  depend  on  the  influences  and  agencies 
brought  to  bear  upon  us,  surely  it  is  the  part  of  wisdom  to 
see  that  they  bo  pure  and  right,  rather  than  cheap.  And  if 
this  be  true  of  books  and  teachers,  it  is  equally  and  even  more 
true  and  important  of  the  newspaper,  which  in  our  day  is  one 
21 


242  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

of  tlie  most  powerful  of  all  agencies  for  the  formation  of  char- 
acter, and  molding  of  heart  and  life. 

But  many  people  strangely  lose  sight  of  this  obvious  truth 
•when  books,  and  especially  newspapers,  are  in  question.'  With 
them  a  book  is  a  book  and  a  newspaper  is  a  newspaper  ;  and 
the  size  of  each  is  the  great  consideration.  The  more  printed 
matter  these  persons  can  buy  for  a  given  sum,  the  better  off 
they  think  themselves.  The  more  news  they  get  in  their  paper 
the  more  they  think  they  have  gained.  Quantity  and  cheap- 
ness are  everything,  quality  is  next  to  nothing. 

But  no  idea  can  be  more  false  and  pernicious  than  this.  If 
ever  close  and  accurate  discrimination  is  required  it  is  in  regard 
to  what  we  read.  Especially  is  this  true  in  this  age  when  the 
press  is  groaning  with  the  issues  of  •'  cheap  literature."  (Dog 
cheap  it  generally  is  in  price,  though  often  costing  in  the  end 
the  loss  of  the  priceless  jewels  of  virtue  and  purity.)  He 
who  would  guard  his  own  mind  and  the  minds  of  his  children 
from  moral  poison,  must  beware  of  the  cheap  periodicals,  and 
other  issues  of  the  press  at  the  present  day. 

Now  the  cheap  mammoth  weeklies  of  the  large  cities  are  no 
exception  to  this  remark.  The  best  of  them  all,  the  iVew 
York  Tribune,  may  be  had  by  clubs,  for  a  dollar  a  year.  It  is 
the  strongest  paper  in  the  world,  and,  in  some  respects  among 
the  best.  And  yet,  even  the  Tribune  publishes  huge  masses 
of  matter  which  no  pure  minded  parent  would  think  of  put- 
ting in  the  hands  of  his  children.  For  instance.  New  York 
city  was  convulsed  with  excitement  during  the  past  winter, 
over  the  murder  of  Dr.  Burdell  (a  murder,  in  regard  to  which 
we  have  published  nothing,  because  we  deemed  the  details 
unfit  for  our  columns).  Much  of  the  testimony  taken  before 
the  coroner's  jury  was  of  the  filthiest  character.  The  coroner 
himself  is  a  Dogberry  of  the  Dogberries,  and  his  examination 
of  witnesses  abounds  in  excrutiating  attempts  at  wit,  and  in 
the  most  obscene  and  blackguard  illusions.  And  yet  of  this 
mass  of  essential  nastiness,  of  which  murder,  fornication, 
adultery,  etc.,  form  the  seasoning,  the  JSfeio  York  Tribnne 
published,  by  its  own  statement,  no  less  than  one  hundred  and 
fifty  columns!  And  naively  remarked,  in  view  of  that  fact, 
that  "  it  could  have  been  filled  with  nothing  so  satisfactory  to 
its  readers !  "  Nor  is  this  a  solitary  case,  but  rather  a  sample 
of  what  occurs  daily.  Very  much  of  the  police  reports,  and 
of  the  reports  of  the  trials  in  the  criminal  courts  of  the 
cities,  is  of  the  most  abominable  character.  The  details  of 
crime  are  spread  out  with  a  disgusting  minuteness  which  can 


REV.   JOSEPH    GORDON.  243 

gratify  nothing  but  an  itching  and  prurient  curiosity,  and 
which  can  foster  nothing  but  a  most  depraved  and  vicious 
taste.  Surely  the  man  who  buys  large  masses  of  such  trash, 
though  it  costs  him  only  a  dollar  a  year,  is  paying  dearly  for 
his  whistle. 

But  morality  out  of  the  question,  there  is  a  deal  of  hum- 
bug in  this  matter  of  cheap  newspapers.  The  quantity  of 
matter  in  the  mammoth  dollar  weeklies  of  the  cities  which  is 
of  any  use  to  persons  of  almost  all  occupations  in  country  or 
village,  compared  with  the  whole  contents  of  the  paper,  is  aa 
"  two  grains  of  wheat  to  two  bushels  of  chaff."  To  get  the 
items  he  needs,  the  farmer,  or  mechanic,  or  country  merchant, 
must  often  wade  through  solid  columns  of  stuff  that  is  of  no 
moment  whatever  to  him.  Now  the  man  who  will  sift  out  the 
wheat  from  the  chaff,  selecting  what  is  valuable  and  rejecting 
what  is  worthless,  and  presenting  the  information  that  is 
really  useful  in  condensed  form,  is  surely  doing  a  good  ser- 
vice for  his  readers.  This  is  an  important  part  of  the  work 
of  country  journals  of  limited  circulation.  And  it  is  cheaper 
for  the  farmer  and  mechanic  to  pay  three  dollars  for  one  of 
these  papers,  which  presents  him  just  the  matters  in  which  he 
needs  to  be  posted,  than  to  buy  a  mammoth  weekly  for  one  dol- 
lar, and  glean  from  the  mass  of  irrelevant  matter  the  items  he 
needs  for  himself. 

But  the  moral  aspect  of  the  case  is  vastly  the  most  import- 
ant. The  newspaper  has  become  a  power  of  the  age.  It  is 
doing  a  mighty  work  in  molding  public  sentiment,  and  in 
shaping  the  destinies  of  men  and  nations.  A  weekly  journal 
of  elevated  literary,  moral  and  religious  tone,  presenting  truth 
with  all  the  variety  and  freshness  necessary  in  such  a  medium, 
and  adapted  to  form  a  chaste  and  cultivated  taste  in  its  read- 
ers, is  an  instrumentality  of  unspeakable  importance  in  a 
fjimily.  The  worth  of  such  an  educational  agency  is  above 
rubies. 


Lecture  op  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 

This  gentleman  lectured  before  a  large  congregation  of  cit- 
izens and  students,  in  the  College  Chapel,  on  Thursday  even- 
ing last.  Mr.  Emerson  is  tall  and  slender  in  person  ;  viewed 
by  lamp-light  he  is  not  handsome.  In  lecturing  he  has  an 
upturning  eye  that  is  particularly  unpleasant.     He  is  awk- 


244  LIFE    AND   AVRITINGS   OF 

ward  in  his  postures  and  gestures;  hesitates,  blunders,  and 
occasionally  stutters  in  his  speech.  His  command  of  lan- 
guage is  not  copious.  He  frequently  begins  a  sentence,  stops 
after  uttering  four  or  five  words,  goes  back  and  takes  a  fresh 
start.  Occasionally  he  gets  something  more  than  half  through 
a  sentence  apparently  without  knowing  how  it  is  to  close — 
then,  pausing  briefly,  and  perhaps  thinking  it  easier  to  go  for- 
ward than  backward,  he  grinds  out  with  seeming  difficulty  the 
concluding  member  of  the  sentence.  In  such  cases  the  con- 
clusion is  usually  inelegant  and  confused.  Mr.  Emerson 
excels  in  obscurity.  He  is  master  of  the  art  of  mystification. 
He  is  an  adept  in  the  trick  of  "  darkening  counsel  by  words 
without  knowledge."  His  lectures  have  been  compared  to 
constellations  of  stars  flashing  through  mist  or  fog.  The 
mist  and  fog,  we  can  testify,  were  very  thick  on  Thursday 
evening.     The  starlight  was  not  so  palpable. 

These,  however,  were  the  least  faults  of  the  lecture.  Its 
end  and  aim,  if  we, could  gather  them  from  its  loose,  involved 
and  shadowy  sentences,  were  to  exalt  the  intellect  "  above  all 
that  is  called  God,  or  that  is  worshiped."  This  was  to  be 
expected,  as  a  development  of  the  Pantheism  (in  other  words, 
the  Atheism)  of  which  the  lecturer  is  one  of  the  modern 
prophets.  Holding,  as  he  does,  that  "  God  is  every  thing, 
and  every  thing  is  God;"  teaching,  as  he  does,  that  "he, 
himself,  is  part  or  particle  of  God,"  and  that  '-God  attains 
self-consciousness  only  in  the  human  soul,"  it  is,  of  course, 
to  be  expected  that  he  should  exalt  the  human  soul  as  an 
object  of  religious  worship.  Hence,  he  represents  it  as 
endowed  with  creative  power.  "  If  the  sun  and  moon  were 
annihilated,"  exclaims  the  lecturer,  "  the  intellect  could  begin 
to  re-create  them  !  "  This  arrant  nonsense,  we  suppose,  passes 
with  some  people  for  profound  wisdom.  How  the  intellect 
could  begin  the  ci'eation  of  a  sun,  the  lecturer  did  not  con- 
descend to  inform  us.  AVhere  it  would  get  the  materials,  by 
what  means  it  could  arrange  these  materials  in  order,  how  it 
would  impress  upon  them  the  laws  by  which  matter  is  now 
governed,  are  questions  on  which  the  prophet  of  Pantheism 
was  equally  silent.  To  talk  of  the  human  intellect,  which  is 
utterly  incapable  of  prolonging  its  own  existence  for  a 
moment,  and  Avhich  feels  in  its  deepest  consciousness  its  total 
dependence  on  a  being  above  itself,  as  endowed  with  creative 
power,  is  the  most  downright  foolery  that  we  ever  heard  from 
human  lips.  Yet  of  this  transcendental  folly  the  lecture  was 
full. 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  245 

But  there  was  one  thing  worse  even  than  this,  taught  by 
the  lecturer.  That  was  the  infallibility  of  the  human  intel- 
lect. He  represented  it  as  the  sole  guide  of  the  individual  in 
all  the  conduct  of  life.  "  Give  free  scope  to  thought;"  "  trust 
your  intellect,"  were  exhortations  emphatically  impressed  upon 
his  audience.  There  was  no  hint  given  that  this  lauded  intel- 
lect ever  had  or  ever  could  wander  into  mazes  of  error  and 
falsehood.  Being  part  of  God,  according  to  the  lecturer's 
creed,  how  could  it?  He  totally  ignored  the  fact  that  the 
working  of  the  human  intellect  in  science,  religion,  politics, 
and  every  thing  else,  is  mainly  a  history  of  teeming  follies, 
absurdities,  errors  and  lies,  of  which  it  has  been  the  prolific 
parent.  He  gave  no  hint  of  a  difference  between  true  and 
false  thinking.  In  fact  one  would  infer  from  the  lecture  that 
such  a  thing  as  false  thinking  was  utterly  impossible.  In  this, 
again,  he  was  consistent  with  himself.  The  intellect  being 
"  part  and  particle  of  God,"  being  that,  in  fact,  in  which 
"God  attains  self-consciousness,"  and  God  being  infallible,  of 
course  the  human  intellect  is  so  likewise. 

Man's  moral  nature,  and  the  existence  of  laws  governing 
both  his  intellectual  and  his  moral  faculties,  were  completely 
ignored  by  the  lecturer.  The' intellect  with  him  is  the  all  in 
all.  It  is  to  be  unrestrained  ;  it  is  to  be  a  law  unto  itself;  its 
vaguest  dreams  are  to  be  reverenced  as  the  voice  of  God. 
Whether  it  works  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  salvation  of 
men,  as  in  the  pious  essays  of  Hannah  More,  or  prostitutes 
its  powers  to  the  overthrow  of  faith  and  the  undermining  of 
the  foundation  of  all  virtue,  as  in  the  infidel  blasphemies  of 
Voltaire,  it  is  alike  divine.  "  Write  a  verse  of  poetry,"  says 
Mr.  Emerson,  "  and  society  will  adore  you."  But  it  is  no 
matter  at  all,  according  to  him,  whether  that  poetry  glows 
with  the  fire  of  hell,  as  in  the  stanzas  of  Byron,  or  shines 
with  the  light  of  heaven,  as  in  the  radiant  lines  of  Milton. 

From  this  apotheosis  of  the  human  intellect  the  transition 
is  easy  and  natural  to  the  worship  of  monkeys  and  crocodiles, 
for  they  too,  according  to  Pantheism,  are  "  part  and  particle 
of  God."  Accordingly  we  find,  in  fact,  that  this  brute  wor- 
ship is  the  grand  achievement  in  which  the  system  of  the 
Hindoo  philosophers  has  culminated  ;  and  from  these  Hindoo 
philosophers  Emerson  and  the  other  modern  Pantheists  have 
borrowed  their  creed.  The  identical  doctrines  which  are 
given  out  oracularly  by  Mr.  Emerson,  as  something  pro- 
foundly original,  were  taught  in  India  two  thousand  years  ago. 
They  have  found  their  full  development  in  the  adoration  of 


i46  LIFE   AND    WRITINGS   OF 

apes  and  alligators  among  the  present  inhabitants  of  that 
country.  In  this  grossest  of  all  idolatries,  and  in  the  fathom- 
less degradation  to  which  it  has  plunged  its  votaries,  we  have 
a  demonstration  of  what  Pantheism  can  do  for  mankind. 

Perhaps  some  reader  is  ready  by  this  time  to  ask,  had  the 
lecture  no  good  points?  It  had  an  occasional  witticism  which 
made  the  people  laugh,  and  a  few  good  hits  at  some  of  the 
prevailing  follies  of  the  times. 

We  have  thus  expressed  our  opinion  somewhat  freely  of  the 
lecture  and  the  creed  of  Mr.  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson.  His 
admirers,  if  he  has  any  among  our  readers,  will  of  course  set 
down  all  we  have  said  to  the  credit  of  our  own  stupidity,  and 
we  are  perfectly  willing  they  should.  We  hope  to  be  always 
too  stupid  to  see  the  profundity  of  wisdom  in  moonshine 
rhapsodies. 


Lecture  by  Bayard  Taylor. 

Bayard  Taylor,  of  New  York,  lectured  before  the  Yellow 
Springs'  Lyceum  in  the  College  Chapel,  on  Saturday  evening 
last.  The  spacious  hall  was  well  filled  with  an  attentive  and 
intelligent  audience,  showing  that  our  citizens  are  disposed 
to  patronize  a  course  of  lectures  by  men  of  ability.  Mr. 
Taylor  is  quite  youthful  in  appearance — tall,  straight  and 
handsome.  His  delivery  is  unimpassioned  and  somewhat 
uniform  in  tone  and  gesture,  but  pleasant  and  attractive 
withal. 

His  subject  was  India.  He  began  by  saying  that  however 
far  particular  races  of  men  might  wander  from  their  birth- 
place, they  still  traced  back  their  pedigree  to  the  cradle  of  the 
race  in  Asia.  The  natives  there  had  a  tradition  that  Adam's 
paradise  was  in  the  centre  of  that  division  of  the  earth.  Mr. 
Taylor  thought  that  the  vale  of  Cashmere  might  have  been  its 
seat,  if  beauty  of  scenery  was  evidence. 

The  geography  and  topography  of  the  country  were  briefly 
sketched.  The  beauties  of  its  valleys  and  the  sublime  grand- 
eur of  the  Himmalaya  mountains — its  Northern  boundary — 
were  beautifully  described. 

The  lecturer  represented  the  people  as  weak  and  cowardly, 
but  deeply  religious.  They  have  always  been  conquered 
when  attacked,  and  have  often  been  governed  by  foreign 
powers.     This  he  attributed  mainly  to  their  vegetable  diet. 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  247 

They  have  a  superstitious  regard  for  animals,  and  a  special 
veneration  for  the  cow.  Hence  they  look  upon  beef-eating 
as  an  abomination.  We  should  think,  however,  that  the 
climate  had  as  much  to  do  with  the  character  of  the  nations 
as  their  diet.  We  find  most  of  the  energy  and  enterprise  of 
the  human  race  in  the  temperate  zones.  In  the  high  North- 
ern latitudes  where  they  use  almost  exclusive  meat  diel,  men 
are  dwarfed  and  feeble,  as  in  the  tropics,  where  their  diet  is 
purely  vegetable. 

The  religion  of  the  Hindoos  consists  jBrst  in  the  worship 
of  Brahma,  the  supreme  and  omnipotent  God,  creator  of 
heaven  and  earth.  Associated  with  him  are  Vishnu,  the 
preserver,  and  Siva,  the  destroyer,  making  the  Hindoo  Trin- 
ity. Then  there  are  other  inferior  Gods,  who,  with  their 
progeny,  amount  to  thirty-three  millions.  The  faith  of  the 
Hindoo  is  intense.  This  trait,  the  lecturer  thought,  was  an 
assurance  of  their  sincere  devotion  to  Christianity  so  soon  as 
they  can  be  brought  to  embrace  it.  But  the  great  barrier  in 
the  way  of  their  religious,  as  well  as  social  and  political 
improvement,  is  caste.  In  addition  to  the  four  principle  castes, 
there  are  innumerable  subdivisions.  Every  branch  of  labor 
has  its  caste,  and  every  caste  shuns  contact  with  those  below 
it,  as  they  would  the  plague. 

The  influence  of  British  rule  in  India  was  next  treated  of. 
In  regard  to  this,  he  stated  that  one  class  of  witnesses,  thi3 
employees  and  dependents  of  the  East  India  Company,  repre- 
sented it  as  all  that  is  good  and  paternal.  Another  class,  the 
philanthropists  and  reformers,  described  it  as  wholly  barba- 
rous and  wicked.  The  truth,  he  thought,  lay  between  these 
extremes.  The  rule  of  the  East  India  Company  was  despotic, 
and  its  course  had  been  marked  with  blood.  But  some  good 
had  already  resulted  from  its  government,  and  more  might  be 
expected.  By  the  extinction  of  the  native  sovereignties, 
intestine  wars  were  totally  suppressed.  The  Suttee  and  the 
immolation  of  victims  beneath  the  wheels  of  Juggernaut 
were  no  longer  known.  As  the  natives  come  more  and  more 
under  the  influence  of  the  English,  and  as  civilization  and 
Christianity  have  freer  scope,  great  progress  may  be  expected. 
Much  evil  and  sufi"ering  may  attend  the  coi'rection  of  exist- 
ing abuses.  But  all  things  are  under  the  control  of  a  wise 
Providence,  which  slowly  works  out  its  designs  through  cycles 
of  ages.  In  fulfilling  the  purposes  of  Providence,  men  often 
commit  great  crimes.  The  "  Vox  populi "  is  frequently 
"  Vox   Diaboli."     But   the  voice  of  ages  is  the  voice  of  God. 


248  LIFE   AND    WRITINGS    OF 

This  skcteli  is  only  a  glance  at  a  few  of  the  points  in  the 
lecture,  and  does  it  no  manner  of  justice  as  a  report.  It 
occupied  an  hour  and  a  quarter  in  its  delivery,  and  was  lis- 
tened to  -with  undiminished  atttcntion  to  the  close. 


Colonization. 

We  have  spoken  our  opinion  freely  of  this  scheme.  In 
doing  so  we  are  actuated  by  no  feeling  of  hostility  to  the 
existing  colony  of  Liberia.  On  the  contrary,  we  most  sin- 
cerely desire  (though  we  can  not  expect)  that  it  may  prove 
as  great  a  blessing  to  the  colored  people  of  this  country,  and 
the  natives  of  Africa,  as  its  most  sanguine  advocates  predict. 
We  most  heartily  rejoice  in  all  reliable  accounts  of  the  pros- 
perity of  the  infant  colony.  If  it  has  been  the  means  of 
checking  the  slave-trade  along  the  coast,  we  can  feel  as  honest 
a  gratification  as  any  other  in  the  fact.  If  the  colony  is 
disseminating,  to  any  extent,  the  blessings  of  civilization  and 
religion  among  the  natives,  it  must  rejoice  the  hearts  of  all 
the  humane ;  though,  to  do  this,  there  must  be  a  better  spirit 
between  the  colonists  and  the  natives  than  there  was  in  1840, 
when  Missionary  Brown  and  his  coadjutors — to  use  his  own 
language — "  peppered  the  hams  of  the  Africans  with  buck- 
shot," and  sent  home  a  letter  recounting  the  deed  with 
triumph. 

Again,  we  would  not  throw  a  straw  in  the  way  of  any  col- 
ored man,  who  feeling  deeply  the  grinding  power  of  caste  and 
prejudice  in  this  country,  should  seek  in  Liberia  that  social 
and  political  equality  which  is  denied  him  here.  To  assist 
persons  who,  with  these  feelings  and  an  intelligent  under- 
standing of  the  facts  in  the  case,  should  desire  to  emigrate, 
would  be  praiseworthy  and  benevolent. 

But  these  considerations  do  not  afiect  the  character  of  the 
Colonization  Society,  as  an  organized  association  claiming  to 
advance  a  wise  and  philanthropic  scheme  for  the  benefit  of  the 
free  negro,  the  slave,  the  native  African  and  the  white  race. 
The  past  and  present  influence  of  the  Colonization  Society, 
we  honestly  believe,  was  and  is  evil.  It  has  its  origin  and 
existence  in  the  spirit  of  caste,  and  the  self-interest  of  slave- 
holders, and  is  one  of  the  bulwarks  of  these  evils. 

The  reasons  set  forth  by  the  friends  of  the  society  in  its 
favor    are   utterly  contradictory,   and    must  be    so   from    the 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  249 

nature  of  the  case.  Of  this  some  recent  examples  have 
arrested  our  attention. 

In  his  speech  at  the  late  anniversary  of  the  Colonization 
Society,  the  President,  Henry  Clay,  uses  the  following  lan- 
guage : 

'•I  have  said,  and  recently  on  another  occasion,  that  I  sin- 
cerely believe  that,  of  all  the  projects  of  the  esisting  age,  the 
scheme  of  colonization  of  the  African  race  on  the  shores  of 
Africa  is  the  greatest. 

"In  saying  this,  I  did  not  look  into  its  present  condition  ;  I 
do  not  look  at  what  it  may  be  ten,  fifteen  or  twenty  years 
hence;  but  I  endeavor  to  throw  myself  in  advance,  and  look 
into  what  it  will  be  fifty  or  a  hundred  years  hence;  what  it 
will  be  when  the  continent  of  America  shall  have  discharged 
itself  mainly  of  the  greater  portion  of  the  African  race,  and 
shall  have  returned  them  back  to  the  continent  of  Africa,  and 
shall  have  rewarded  Afri-ca  for  the  injuries  which  her  sons 
have  suffered,  hj  sending  back  a  race  of  men  endowed  with  all 
the  attributes  of  civilization,  Christianity,  the  arts,  and  all  the 
benefits,  in  fact,  which  belong  to  our  own  race." 

This  language  was  used  when  the  object  was  to  show  that 
Africa  is  to  be  redeemed  by  the  colonization  of  the  free  peo- 
ple of  color  from  this  country.  Then  this  portion  of  the 
population  is,  with  one  sentence  of  the  orator's  spe3ch,  "en- 
dowed with  nil  the  attributes  of  civilization,  Christianiii/,  a,nd 
the  arts."  Four  paragraphs  from  this  the  speaker  was  trying 
to  show  the  benefits  of  colonization  to  this  country,  and  then 
quite  another  note  is  struck.  The  free  negroes  are  stripped 
of  the  "attributes  of  civilization  and  Christianity,"  and 
described  as  follows : 

"  With  regard  to  the  free  people  of  color,  do  you  nol  all 
know  (I  wish  to  say  nothing  but  what  is  warranted  by  daily 
experience)  that  it  is  not  their  fault  that  they  are  a  degraded 
set.  It  is  not  their  fault  that  they  are  more  addicted  to  crime 
and  dissolute  manners  than  any  other  portion  of  the  popula- 
tion of  the  United  States.  It  is  the  inevitable  result  of  the 
law  of  their  condition.  The  whites  themselves,  if  placed  in 
the  condition  of  the  free  people  of  color  would,  like  them,  be 
exposed  to  the  perpetration  of  crime  in  the  same  way  they 
are.  Look  at  the  annals  of  criminal  jurisprudence  in  our 
country — and  in  this  very  city — and  it  will  be  seen,  that  of 
the  proportion  of  those  who  commit  crimes,  the  free  people  of 
color  is  infinitely  greatet  than  that  of  any  other  class  which 
compose  our  population." 

22 


250l.  LlJ^   -I'^O   WRITIJTGS   OF 

It  is  a  significant  commentary  on  the  character  of  the 
•whole  scheme  of  colonization,  that  a  person  of  the  speaker's 
intelligence  should  thus  flatly  contradict  himself  in  half  a 
column  of  his  speech.  It  shows  a  large  drawing  on  the 
imagination  for  facts,  for  truth  is  ever  harmonioas.  It  is  only 
falsehood  that  thus  contradicts  itself.  By  what  process  "  a 
degraded  set"  (to  use  the  elegant  language  of  Mr.  Clay)  is 
to  "  learn  Christian  ethics  in  the  salt  sea's  foam,"  is  a  mys- 
tery which  the  colonizers  have  never  yet  explained.  This 
contradiction  has  been  exposed  a  hundred  times,  and  yet  it  is 
paraded  with  all  the  confidence  of  a  new  and  indisputable 
truth. 

There  are  other  poiats  of  contradiction  quite  as  glaring  aa 
this.  In  regard  to  the  influence  of  colonization  on  slavery^ 
the  most  opposite  teachings  are  prevalent.  For  instance,  Mv, 
Clay  says : 

"This  society  has,  with  consistency,  protested  from  its  ori- 
gin to  the  present  time,  that  it  has  not,  does  not,  and  never 
will,  interfere  with  the  subject  of  slavery  as  it  exists  in  the? 
several  States.     It  is  no  part  of  its  objector  office  to  do  that." 

R.  J.  Breckinridge,  D.  D.,  in  a  late  speech  before  the  Ken- 
tucky Colonization  Society,  declares  that  "  no  wdl  informed 
person  believes  that  the  number  of  slaves  icill  be  rcdvced  by  the 
action  of  the  Colotiization  Socicti/.''  This  is  what  the  aboli- 
tionists have  always  asserted.  Yet  we  find  in  this  da}-,  rcli- 
gious  papers  (so  called)  the  editors  of  which  would,  no  doubt,- 
like  to  be  thought  "well  informed  persons,"  gravely  setting 
forth  the  colonization  scheme  as  the  remedy  for  slavery.  For 
instance,  the  Cumberland  Prcsbyicrian,  a  paper  of  the  Cum- 
berland Presbyterian  Church,  published  at  Browasville,  Pa., 
■sases  this  language : 

"It  may  be  asked,  as  we  are  opposed  to  slavery,  and  alsc 
to  denouncing  it  in  the  Church,  what  measures  we  adopt  a» 
proper  to  secure  ultimate  emancipation  ?  To  this  we  answer, 
■^e  are  decidedly  in  favor  of  the  colonization  scheme,  as  set 
forth  and  carried  out  by  the  American  Colonization  Society. 

"  The  measure  adopted  "  by  men  who  boast  that  they 
•'  have  availed  themselves  of  all  the  light  that  has  been  casfc. 
on  the  siibject,"  to  "secure  ultimate  emancipation,"  is  the  col- 
onization scheme;  this,  too,  in  the  face  of  the  declaration  of 
the  most  distinguished  advocates  of  the  cause,  that  the  society 
■  "has  not,  does  not,  and  ^lever  will,  interfere  with  the  subjecfe 
of  slavery,"  and  that  "no  well  informed  person. believes  tha4 


REV.  JOSEPH  aollDo^^  251 

the   number  of  slaves  will  be  reduced  by  the  action  of  the 
society." 

The  foregoing  arc  mere  specimens  of  the  opposite  teachings 
on  this  subject,  which  have  been  current  for  many  years. 
Yet  this  scheme  of  contradictions  and  absurdities  is  extolled 
as  "  the  greatest  enterprise  of  the  age."  A  persevering  cifort 
is  made  to  induce  Congress  to  tax  the  people  for  carrying  it 
on  ;  and  Christian  people  are  exhorted  to  support  it  as  God's 
own  chosen  means  for  removing  slavery,  converting  Africa, 
and  saving  the  free  people  of  color  from  degradation  and  ruin, 


Co-EXiSTENCE   OF    LIBERTY   AND    SLAVERY   IMPOSSIBLE. 

The  following  ia  from  the  Richvwnd  Enquirer : 
"Social  forms  so  widely  diifering  as  those  of  domestic 
slavery,  and  (attempted)  universal  liberty  can  not  long  co- 
exist IN  THE  great  HePUBLIC  OF  CHRISTENDOM.  They 
can  not  be  equally  adapted  to  the  wants  and  interests  of  soci- 
ety. The  one  form  or  the  other  must  be  very  wrong,  very  ill 
suited  to  promote  the  quiet,  the  peace,  the  happiness,  the 
morality,  the  religion  and  general  well-being  of  the  commu- 
nity. Disunion  will  not  allay  excitement  and  investigation, 
much  less  beget  lasting  peace.  The  war  between  the  two  sys- 
tems rages  elsewhere  ;  and   will  continue  to  rage  till  the 

ONE  CONQUERS  AND  THE  OTHER  IS  EXTERMINATED." 

This  Is  the  exact  truth,  clearly  and  definitely  stated.  It  ia 
truth  which  abolitionists  have  been  preaching  for  years. 
When  they  first  announced  it  they  seemed  to  the  nation  as 
those  that  mocked.  Now,  however,  this  truth  is  becoming 
manifest  to  all.  The  shiveholders  see  and  assert  it—* 
and  at  last  the  besotted  North  begins  to  realize  it.  The 
Christ  of  liberty  can  have  no  concord  with  the  Belial  of 
slavery.  The  conflict  between  them  is  joined,  and  one  or  th« 
other  must  perish.  The  war  on  the  side  of  slavery  is  one  of 
extermination.  It  will  give  no  quarter  to  freedom.  It  will, 
if  successful,  leave  it  no  foothold  on  this  continent.  It  will 
hunt  the  fair  form  of  freedom  from  every  inch  of  territory 
between  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  oceans.  Already  the  death's 
head  of  this  piracy  gleams  balefully  over  Central  America. 
It  is  compassing  sea  and  land  to  plant  its  black  banner  on  the 
plains  of  Kansas.  Already  its  deadly  I'olds  wave  over  New 
Mexico,  and   the   home  of  the  modern    Sodomite?  in   Utah, 


252  LIFE  A^^D   WHITINGS   OF 

From  there,  if  its  other  schemes  succeed,  slavery  will  push  its 
conquests  to  the  Pacific.  That  point  gained  and  all  Mexico 
and  Central  America  will  be  speedily  absorbed.  Then  the 
rapacious  hordes  of  despotism  will  turn  north,  and  soon  the 
feeble  remnants  of  freedom  left  us  in  the  free  States  will  be 
trodden  to  death  under  their  bloody  feet. 

Such  are  the  purposes  of  slavery,  and  such  the  spirit  in 
which  they  arc  prosecuted.  Would  that  the  same  uncom- 
promising spirit  actuated  all  its  professed  opposers.  Would 
that  the  avowed  friends  of  freedom  were  as  resolutely  bent  on 
hunting  the  demon  of  slavery  from  its  last  resting-place. 
Would  that  they  too  were  resolved  on  a  war  of  extermination, 
But  such,  alas!  is  not  the  case.  The  vast  majority  of  the 
professed  friends  of  freedom  in  this  country  are  at  the  utmost 
pains  to  disclaim  all  purpose  of  interfering  with  slavery  where 
it  now  exists.  They  vehemently  deny  that  they  have  any 
intention  of  driving  slavery  from  the  strongholds — political, 
social  and  ecclesiastical — in  which  it  has  already  entrenched 
itself.  They  will  share  the  empire  of  this  continent  with  the 
slave  power.  They  ask  only  a  part  of  the  fair  heritage,  which 
should  all  be  the  birthright  of  freedom.  They  will  leave  to 
slavery  the  undisputed  power  it  now  exercises  over  the  Church 
and  the  State,  if  it  will  just  forego  the  privilege  of  extending 
its  domain  into  free  territory. 

We  rejoice  that  slavery  rejects  this  compromise,  and  now 
claims  universal  sway.  It  will,  by  so  doinc:,  drive  the  free 
States  into  the  same  policy  on  tlie  other  side.  It  will  con- 
vince them  that  they  iuust  exterminate  this  piracy,  or  be 
exterminated  by  it.  It  will  force  time-serving  politicians  into 
a  decided  position.  It  will  explode  the  paltry  schemes  of 
timid  ecclesiastics,  who  think  by  *' capping  the  volcano  "  to 
prevent  an  eruption,  while  the  fire  is  left  burning  within.  It 
will  turn  to  folly  all  worldly-wise  projects  for  '-settling  the 
question."  It  will  show  that  slavery  will  never  be  quiet  until 
dead  and  buried,  and  v/ill  set  all  hands,  not  v^'illing  to  be 
subjugated,  to  the  work  of  digging  its  grave.  When  the 
North  is  at  last  unanimously  forced  to  that  position,  the  work 
will  be  cut  short  in  righteousness.     May  God  speed  the  day. 


Slavery  and  the  Slave-Trade. 

It  is  one  of  the  inconsistencies  of  humftn  nature  that  men 
are  often  shocked  with   one  form  of  a  particular  sin,  whilo 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  253 

they  will  practice  another  form  of  the  very  same  sin  without 
the  least  compunction.  The  clerical  wine-bibber,  who  goes 
to  bed  every  night  half-fuddled  on  his  aristocratic  beverage, 
is  piously  exercised  over  the  intemperance  of  the  poor 
wretches  who  get  drunk  out-right  on  vulgar  whisky.  The 
genteel  swindles. who  embezzles  thousands  of  his  employer's 
money,  would  feel  insulted  if  placed  on  a  level  with  the  poor 
thief  who  steals  a  penny  loaf  from  a  baker's  window.  The 
woman  of  French  morality,  in  "high  life,"  grows  eloquently 
indignant  over  the  low  debauchery  of  the  Five  Points. 

Very  similar  to  the  conduct  of  these  worthies  is  the  oppo- 
sition manifested  in  certain  quarters  to  the  reopening  of  the 
foreign  slave  trade.  This  opposition,  in  many  instances, 
comes  from  those  who  are  living  in  the  closest  political  and 
religious  fellowship  with  slavery;  and  who  openly  defend 
that  system,  or  silently  acquiesce  in  its  existence.  Their 
opposition  to  the  slave-trade  is  precisely  on  a  par  with  the 
wine-bibber's  opposition  to  intemperance.  Governor  Adams, 
of  South  Carolina,  has  expressed  a  logical  and  inevitable 
truth,  when  he  says  that  "  If  the  slave-trade  is  piracy  then 
slavery  is  plunder."  On  the  other  hand,  if  slavery  is  right, 
so,  also,  is  the  slave-trade.  The  one  is  the  parent  of  the 
other.  The  slaves  were  originally  stolen  from  Africa.  The 
Virginia  and  Carolina  planter  bought  only  the  slave  trader's 
title  to  his  chattels.  That  was  only  a  pirate's  title.  The 
slaves  being  stolen,  and  the  buyers  knowing  that  fact,  became 
partakers  of  the  theft  by  purchasing  the  stolen  property. 
Evidently  he  r-ould  transmit  to  his  posterity  no  better  title  to 
his  human  chattels,  or  to  their  ojQPspring,  than  he  possessed 
himself.  Hence,  we  repeat,  if  the  slave-trade  is  piracy,  the 
slaveholder,  down  through  a  hundred  generations,  is  a  man- 
stealer — "  a  thief  of  the  highest  rank." 

But  there  are  those  in  this  country  who  insist  that  the 
slave-trade  shall  still  continue  to  be  branded  as  piracy,  and 
yet  that  the  slaveholder  may  be  a  very  exemplary  and  pious 
Christian — fit  for  the  pulpit,  and  for  the  ver}^  highest  stations 
of  honor  in  the  church.  They  still  cling  to  him  in  religious 
fellowship.  They  still  hold  fast  to  church  organizations 
which  declare  that  slavery  is  the  corner-stone  on  which  they 
are  built,  and  the  cement  that  binds  their  spiritual  stones 
together. 

Our  brother  of  the  Pi-eshylerian  of  the  ^Vest  is  anxious  to 
know  if  the  Southern  pulpit  and  religious  press  will  come  out 
in  opposition  to  the  re-opening  of   the  foreign  slave-trade. 


254  LIFE    AND    WRITINGS    OF 

Without  any  pretension  to  prophetic  lore,  we  can  inform  him 
that  they  will  do  nothing  of  the  kind.  We  venture  the  pre- 
diction that  outside  of  Maryland  and  Virginia,  in  which 
States  public  sentiment,  for  the  most  mercenary  reasons,  is 
opposed  to  the  foreign  slave-trade,  not  a  whisper  of  opposition 
to  its  re-opening  will  be  heard  from  Southern  pulpits  or 
religious  presses.  Why  should  they  oppose  it  ?  Do  not  the 
nominal  Christians  of  the  South  openly  practice  and  defend, 
or  silently  indorse  a  worse  traffic  in  human  flesh  than  that 
from  the  coast  of  Africa?  On  this  point  hear  the  testimony 
of  a  Virginia  statesman.  During  the  debate  in  the  year  1832, 
in  the  Virginia  House  of  Delegates,  on  the  abolition  of 
slavery,  Thomas  Jefferson  Randolph,  the  grandson  of  Presi- 
dent Jefferson,  spoke  as  follows: 

"  The  gentleman  has  spoken  of  the  increase  of  the  female 
slaves  being  a  part  of  the  profit :  it  is  admitted ;  but  no  great 
evil  can  be  averted,  no  good  attained  without  some  inconve- 
nience. It  may  be  questioned  how  far  it  is  desirable  to  foster 
and  encourage  this  branch  of  profit.  It  is  a  practice,  and  an 
increasing  practice,  in  parts  of  Virginia,  to  rear  slaves  for 
market.  How  can  an  honorable  mind,  a  patriot,  and  a  lover 
of  his  country,  bear  to  see  this  Ancient  Dominion,  rendered 
illustrious  by  the  noble  devotion  and  patriotism  of  her  sons 
in  the  cause  of  liberty,  converted  into  one  grand  menagerie, 
where  men  are  to  be  reared  for  market  like  oxen  for  the 
shambles?  Is  it  better,  is  it  not  worse  than  the  slave-trade — 
that  trade  which  enlisted  the  labor  of  the  good  and  the  wise 
of  every  creed  and  every  clime  to  abolish  it?  The  trader  re- 
ceives the  slave,  a  stranger  in  language,  aspect  and  manner, 
from  (he  merchant  who  has  brought  him  from  the  interior. 
The  ties  of  father,  mother,  husband  and  child,  have  all  been 
rent  in  twain  ;  before  he  receives  him  his  soul  has  become 
callous. 

"  But  here,  Sir,  individuals  whom  the  master  has  known 
from  infancy,  whom  he  has  seen  sporting  in  the  innocent 
gambols  of  childhood ;  who  have  been  accustomed  to  look  to 
him  for  protection,  he  tears  from  the  mother's  arms,  and  sells 
into  a  strange  country  among  strange  people,  subject  to  cruel 
task-masters.     In  my  opinion,  Sir,  it  is  much  worse." 

The  Southern  Church  and  ministry  have  no  word  of  rebuke 
for  this  home  traffic  in  slaves  ;  why  then  should  they  be 
expected  to  brave  public  sentiment  in  opposition  to  a  milder 
traffic  from  a  foreign  shore?  The  Southern  Church  and 
clergy    daily   see    mothers   torn   from    their    children,   and 


EEV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  255 

cliildren  torn  from  their  mothers ;  they  see  husbands  and 
wives  separated  by  brutal  force,  never  to  meet  more  on  this 
earth  ;  they  see  virgins  sold  for  whoredom,  and  they  breathe 
no  whisper  of  rebuke  of  these  crimes.  Many  of  the  members 
of  Southern  churches  are  themselves  engaged  in  the  infernal 
traffic,  and  do  not  thei-eby  compromise  their  standing  as 
church-members  ia  the  least.  To  expect  these  men,  there- 
fore, to  enter  upon  a  Quixotic  crusade  against  the  foreign 
slave-trade,  is  as  vain  as  to  expect  the  priests  of  Baal  or  Jug- 
gernaut to  oppose  idolatry. 

It  is  surely  no  violation  of  charity  to  say  that  this  South- 
ern slave-breeding  and  slave-tradiug  religion  beax's  but  a  very 
jfiiint  reseuiblance  to  the  religion  of  Ckrist. 


Perversion  op  Scripture. 

The  exigencies  of  a  bad  cause  compel  the  advocates  of  com- 
munion with  slaveholders  to  resort  to  the  most  gross  pervei'- 
sions  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  As  an  example  of  this,  the 
Central  Christian  Herald  opposes  secession  from  slaveholding 
churches,  because  "  it  is  taking  the  leaven  out  of  the  meal- 
tub  and  keeping  it  by  itself,  where,"  he  smartly  observes,  ''  all 
experience  shows  it  is  apt  to  become  very  sour."  The  figure 
of  Christ  which  is  referred  to  here  is  entirely  perverted  from 
the  sense  in  which  it  is  used  by  the  Saviour.  His  language 
is  as  follows  : 

■•'  Another  parable  spake  he  unto  them  :  The  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  like  unto  leaven,  which  a  woman  took,  and  hid  in 
three  measures  of  meal,  till  the  whole  was  leavened." — Matt. 
13  :  33. 

The  kingdom  of  heaven  means  Christ's  spiritual  kingdom, 
the  Church.  This  is  placed  in  the  world,  as  leaven  is  placed 
in  the  meal,  until  the  whole  be  leavened.  Its  sense  is  very  clear 
and  very  beautiful.  As  the  little  leaven  works  on  silently,  but 
powerfully,  until  the  whole  mass  of  meal  in  which  it  is  placed 
5s  pervaded  by  its  influence,  so  the  spiritual  kingdom  of  Christ, 
placed  in  the  great  mass  of  corruption,  the  world,  will  work  on, 
slowly,  it  may  be,  but  mightily  and  surely,  till  the  whole  cor- 
rupt mass  is  brought  under  its  purifying  influence. 

Now  see  the  gross  perversion  of  this  figure  by  the  Herald. 
According  to  its  doctrine,  the  evil-doers  are  to  be  kept  in  the 
Church,   that  they  may  thus  be  brought  in  eoutaet  with  the 


256  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

leaven  ;  thus  completely  breaking  down  all  distinction  between 
the  Church  and  the  world.  Christ's  kingdom,  while  in  the 
•world,  is  not  of  the  world.  The  idea  is  presented,  in  every 
proper  place  in  the  Bible,  that  the  Church  is  to  be  kept  sepa- 
rate from  the  world,  and  thus  being  kept  pure  in  itself,  is  to 
exert  its  saving  power.  But  the  Herald,  admitting,  as  it  does, 
that  slaveholders  need  the  converting  and  sanctifying  grace 
of  the  gospel,  insists  on  keeping  tlieni  mixed  up  with  God's 
people  in  the  Chxirch,  in  order  to  bring  them  in  contact  with 
the  leaven,  Ou  the  same  principle,  the  whole  world  ought  to 
be  brought  into  the  Church  ;  otherwise,  the  leaven  will  be 
outside  of  the  meal-tub.  Suppose  the  New  School  Presbyte- 
rian Church  should  admit  gamblers,  and  drunkards,  and  de- 
bauchees to  her  communion,  as  she  now  admits  slaveholders; 
and  suppose  the  opposers  of  these  sins,  after  fourteen  years  of 
hard  but  ineffectual  labor  in  trying  to  have  the  sinners  expel- 
led, should  conclude  that  the  only  way  to  free  themselves 
from  the  guilt  of  communing  with  gamblers  and  adulterers 
was  to  leave  the  New  School  Church.  When  they  propose 
this  last  resort  to  their  brethren,  up  starts  the  editor  of  the 
Herald,  and  says,  "  No,  brethren  ;  if  you  leave  the  Church, 
the  leaven  will  be  taken  out  of  the  meal-tub,  where  all  expe- 
rience shows  it  is  apt  to  become  very  sour."  This  argument 
would  be  just  as  powerful  in  this  case  as  in  reference  to  slave- 
holders, who,  according  to  the  standing  testimony  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church,  New  and  Old  School,  are  far  greater  sinners 
than  gamblers  and  debauchees. 

If  this  interpretation  of  the  Saviour's  parable  be  correct, 
it  forbids  all  discipline  as  completely  as  it  does  secession. 
When  a  church  court  is  about  to  expel  an  incorrigible  offend- 
er, for  whose  reformation  all  eiforts  have  failed,  a  member  of 
the  court,  with  the  Central  Herald  in  his  hand,  stands  up  be- 
fore them,  and  says,  "  If  we  put  this  man  out  of  the  pale  of 
our  church,  the  leaven  can  no  longer  affect  him.  Let  us 
retain  him  in  our  communion,  and  thus  it  will  work  upon 
him  till  the  whole  mass  cf  his  incorrigible  obstinacy  and  cor- 
ruption is  leavened." 

The  use  that  is  made  of  the  figure  of  leaven,  by  (he  ene- 
mies of  the  Free  Church  movement,  involves  a  theory  of 
church  fellowship  and  church  action  in  direct  opposition  to 
that  which  is  revealed  in  the  Bible,  and  which  has  been  gen- 
erally received  in  the  churches.  The  idea  is,  that  to  separate 
ourselves  from  tlie  communion  of  wrong-doers,  in  the  only 
way  that  is  possible  in  a  church  which  steadily  refuses  to  dis- 


IIEV.    JOSEPH    GURDOK.  257 

eipHne  them,  viz. :  by  separation  from  the  church,  is  taliing 
the  leaven  out  of  the  meal-tub.  The  doctrine  of  the  Bible, 
and  it  is  the  old-fiishioned  theory  of  the  Church,  is  that  the 
Church  should  keep  herself  entirely  pure  and  free  from  open 
and  gross  offenders  ;  and  that  her  power  for  good  in  the  world 
is  just  in  proportion  to  the  degree  of  her  purity.  The  leaven 
is  powerful  in  proportion  to  its  freedom  from  admixture  with 
that  which  destroys  its  power.  "  If  the  salt  have  lost  its 
savor,  wherewith  shall  it  be  salted."  "  If  the  light  that  is  in 
you  be  darkness,  how  great  is  that  darkness."  If  the  leaven 
be  mixed  up  with  that  which  destroys  its  etficacy,  it  is  useless 
when  applied  to  the  mass  of  human  corruption.  But  to  receive 
or  retain  the  open  and  unrepentant  sinner  in  the  Church, 
is  destructive  of  all  the  ends  for  which  a  Church  has  been 
established  in  the  world.  It  is  in  this  way  alone  that  the 
salt  loses  its  savor,  and  the  light  becomes  darkness.  Yet  the 
argument  of  the  Herald  requires  this.  It  must  surely  be  a 
bad  cause  which  compels  men  to  resort  to  such  monstrous 
perversion  of  Holy  Writ, 


Anti-Slavery  Men  in  Pro-Slavery  Organizations. 

In  a  previous  number  of  our  paper,  we  expressed  the  opin- 
ion that  anti-slavery  men  in  pro-slavery  churches  are  the  most 
efficient  supporters  of  slavery.  As  this  will  probably  strike 
many  minds  at  first  sight  as  an  unfounded  proposition,  it  may 
be  worthy  of  additional  consideration.  We  believe  it  suscep- 
tible of  the  clearest  demonstration.  By  a  pro-slavery  church, 
we  mean  a  church  which  permits  its  members  to  hold  slaves 
without  censure ;  a  church  which  does  not  use  its  aggregate 
influence  against  the  system,  but  for  its  support ;  for  "  he  that 
is  not  against  it  is  for  it." 

Now,  if  the  aggregate  influence  of  a  church  be  in  favor  of 
oppression,  it  is  self-evident,  that  thj  greater  that  influence, 
the  greater  the  support  that  will  be  given.  The  aggregate 
influence  of  a  body  is  made  up  of  the  individual  influence  of 
its  members.  There  is  in  such  case  a  common  treasury  of  moral 
power,  into  which  each  member  contributes  all  he  has.  The 
leaders  of  the  church,  or  those  having  control  of  this  treasury, 
take  the  influences  concentrated  there,  and  use  them  to 
uphold  slavery.  Whatever  of  moral  power,  then,  antislavery 
men    have,  they  put    into    this    common    treasury  ;  whence, 


258  LIFE    A5vD    WRITINGS    OF 

despite  their  efforts  to  the  contrary,  it  is  taken  and  used  in  sup- 
port of  the  system.  The  power  of  numbers  is  almost,  if  not 
altogetlier,  the  only  power  now  exerted  in  tliis  country  by  the 
large  and  popular  churches  over  the  world  ;  hence,  it  inevita- 
bly follows,  that  the  increase  of  numbei'S  is  the  increase  of 
power.  For  instance,  if  a  church  consist  of  one  thousand 
members,  and  one  thousand  more  join  it,  its  influence  is 
doubled;  if  five  hundred  leave  it,  it  is  reduced  one-half; 
therefore  it  follows,  that  every  man  that  hdongs  to  a  pro- 
slavery  church,  increases  its  numbers,  and  therefore  the 
power  by  which  it  upholds  oppression.  In  this  way,  pro- 
fessed abolitionists  in  pro-slavery  churches  give  tlieir  influ- 
ence in  favor  of  slaveholding.  They  support  the  church 
that  supports  slavery.  By  sustaining  the  p/"Oj>,  do  they  not 
sustain  the  fabric  that  rests  upon  it?  This  influence  for 
slavery,  abolitionists,  in  the  churches  of  which  we  write,  ex- 
ert in  common  with  other  members.  But  there  are  peculiar 
circumstances  in  the  case,  which  increase  their  influence,  in 
consequence  of  their  antislavory  principles  and  professions* 
To  some  of  these  we  adverted  before. 

1.  They  shield  the  church  from  the  reproach  of  being  pro- 
slavery,  and  thus  increase  her  power  to  uphold  the  system. 
A  church's  power  for  good  or  evil  depends  to  a  considerable 
extent  on  the  degree  of  confidence  reposed  in  her  by  the 
world.  Now,  the  moral  sense  of  men  generally  revolts  at  the 
enormity  of  slavery,  though  for  selfish  reasons  many  practice 
and  defend  it:  hence,  it  is  a  reproach  for  a  church  to  be 
considered  pro  slavery,  and  really  weakens  her  influence; 
hence,  by  the  way,  also,  the  sensitiveness  on  this  point  wit- 
nessed in  many  quarters,  and  the  labored  efforts  to  prove  that 
this  charge  of  the  abolitionists  against  different  chvxrches  is 
false.  Just  at  this  point,  and  for  this  purpose,  the  fact  that 
professed  abolitionists  belong  to  these  churches  is  of  singu- 
lar service.  This /(re/ alone  is  considered  a  triumphant  refuta- 
tion of  the  charge.  The  new  School  Presbyterian  will  point 
to  men  like  Barnes  and  Bcecher  ;  the  Old  School  man  to 
men  like  Carothers  and  Thomas,  and  ask  with  an  air  of  tri- 
umph, if  our  chitrch  is  irro-slaveri/^  wliy  is  if.  that  tlirf.(>,  tliorough- 
paced  abolitionists  belong  to  it?  Thus  these  antislavery  men 
become  Issachars  to  bear  off  the  burden  of  reproach  that 
would  otherwise  press  upon  their  churches,  and  in  return, 
generally  get  the  usual  reward  of  the  patient  animal  to 
which  the  Patriarch  likened  his  .son  —  "more  kicks  than 
kisses." 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  259 

II.  In  the  second  place,  the  influence  of  antislavery  men 
in  the  position  of  which  we  write,  tends  to  quiet  consciences 
that  would  otherwise  be  aroused  by  antislavery  truth.  It  is 
a  weakness  perhaps  of  human  nature,  in  determining  ques- 
tions of  duty,  to  look  more  at  the  conduct  of  others  than  at 
abstract  truth.  Hence,  when  the  conscience  of  the  slaveholder 
becomes  through  any  means  aroused  to  the  wrongs  of  his 
practice,  or  the  conscience  of  the  non-slaveholder  to  the  sin 
of  a  connection  with  pro-slavery  or2;anizations,  they  at  once 
look  to  the  practice  of  the  abolitionists.  Seeing  them  hold- 
ing church-communion  with  slavery,  both  conclude  that  their 
rebukes  of  it  are  hypocritical ;  that  slavery,  after  all,  is  not 
EO  bad  ;  and  hence,  both  continue  on  at  their  ease  in  sin. 
Thus  these  men  stand  between  the  consciences  of  slaveholders 
and  their  defenders  and  the  truth,  and  shield  them  from  its 
barbed  arrows. 

III.  But  the  wor.st  influence  of  the  men  of  whom  we  speak 
is  in  weakening  the  eiforts  of  those  who  are  consistently 
laboring  to  free  the  Church  from  the  sin  of  slavery.  "We  put 
this  question  to  every  man  and  woman  who  may  read  this 
article,  and  ask  them  to  answer  it  dispassionately :  Suppose 
all  the  large  influential  churches  of  this  country — Methodists, 
Presbyterians,  Episcopalians,  Baptists,  etc. — should  take  the 
ground  occupied  by  the  Free  Presbyterian  Church — make 
slaveholding  or  its  defense  a  term  of  communion — loould  not 
this  he  the  death-bloio  to  slaver)/?  This  question  is  its  own 
answer.  It  is  too  plain  for  proof.  There  is  no  power  on 
earth  that  could  hold  up  slavery  a  year  against  the  united, 
earnest  condemnation  of  the  whole  Church.  So  says  Albert 
Barnes,  and  so  says  every  man's  common  sense.  It  follows 
inevitably,  from  this  fact,  that  slavery  lives  and  strengthens 
through  the  support  of  the  Church.  It  draws  its  life-blood 
from  her  bosom,  and  kills  the  spirituality  of  the  Church 
thereby.  How,  then,  can  the  churches  of  this  land  be  brought 
to  use  their  power  for  the  destruction  of  slavery?  Hot  in  the 
mass.  The  whole  history  of  the  world  famishes  ')wt  one 
instance  of  the  majority  of  a  church  once  radically  wrong 
becoming  right  en  masse.  How,  then,  can  this  be  accom- 
plished? Simply  and  only  by  each  individual,  whenever  he 
embraces  antislavery  truth,  leaving  and  uniting  with  those 
churches  which  do  exclude  slavery  from  their  communion. 
Their  leaving  is  a  testimony  which  raises  up  others  to  fill  their 
place,  and  in  turn  withdraw  ;  while  their  staying  in  paralyzes 
their  own  consciences  and  the  consciences  of  others.     Their 


260  LIFE   AND    WRITINGS    OF 

example  is  quoted  against  those  who  secede  and  form  anti- 
slavery  churches,  and  thus  they  weaken  their  hands.  If  the 
Free  Presbyterian,  Wesleyan,  and  other  churches  making 
slaveholding  a  term  of  communion,  had  all  the  professed 
abolitionists  that  hold  the  same  faith  on  other  points,  and  yet 
stay  in  slaveholding  churches,  their  power  would  be  "mighty 
to  the  pulling  down  of  the  strongholds"  of  slavery.  However 
much  contempt  may  be  affected  for  these  churches,  they  are 
now  more  feared  and  hated  than  despised,  by  the  friends  of 
slavery.  Their  growth  is  justly  looked  upon  as  the  sure  pro- 
gress of  a  sentiment  that  is  destined  inevitably  to  overturn 
this  great  evil.  By  all,  therefore,  by  which  their  increase  is 
retarded,  is  the  day  of  its  downftill  protracted  ;  and  by  nothing 
is  this  so  much  hindered  as  by  the  example  and  influence  of 
those  who  profess  anti-slavery  principles  and  retain  pro-slavery 
connections. 

We  have  no  wish  to  use  harsh  language  or  hard  names ; 
but  we  ask  such  of  our  antislavery  friends  as  are  yet  in  the 
situation  of  which  we  write  to  look  candidly  at  the  case  we 
now  present.  Suppose  that  by  some  strange  fortuity  the  sin 
of  horse-stealing  should  become  legal  and  organic  in  this 
country.  Suppose  in  that  case  the  church  to  which  you 
belonged  should  pronounce  this  sin  "  no  bar  to  Christian 
communion,"  what  would  be  your  course  ?  Perh;ips  remon- 
strance would  first  be  tried.  But  we  fancy  your  remonstrance 
would  be  stern  and  brief,  and  if  it  failed  to  secure  a  repeal  of 
the  decree  of  the  church,  you  would  then  withdraw  at  once, 
to  escape  participation  in  the  guilt  of  horse-stealing.  But 
suppose  you  still  hope  for  reform,  and  stay  "a  little  longer," 
and  while  you  are  laboring  for  this,  a  portion  of  your 
brethren  secede  and  form  a  church,  on  precisely  the  same 
principles  as  the  one  they  left,  save  that  it  made  horse-steal- 
ing a  "  bar  to  Christian  communion."  Now  what  would  you 
do?  Are  you  not  ready  to  say  that  the  man  who  would  stay 
after  that  would  be  in  fact  one  of  the  worst  horse-thieves  in 
the  land  ? — "J/«/afo  nomine  de  fe  fabida  narratur."  Change 
the  name  and  the  tale  is  told  of  yourself.  Substitute  in  the 
foregoing  sentences  the  word  "slaveholding"  for  "horse- 
stealing," and  you  have  an  exact  description  of  your  present 
position.  And  it  has  a  familiar  sound  to  antislavery  ears,  to 
say  that  slaveholding,  which  is  man -stealing,  is  as  much  worse 
than  horse-stealing  as  a  man  is  of  more  value  than  a  hors8. 
The  principle  asserted  in  this  last  sentence  is  incontestibly 
true.    It  has  never  been  questioned,  and  never  will  be  success- 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  261 

fully.  Where,  tlien,  does  it  place  the  American  Church? 
Just  as  much  deeper  in  guilt  than  a  church  which  should 
receive  known  horse-thieves  to  her  communion,  as  the  horse 
ranks  lower  in  the  scale  of  being  than  man. 

We  use  the  term  horse-stealing  in  this  connection  by  way 
of  illustration,  not  by  way  of  reproach.  We  would  use  no 
term  unnecessarily  harsh.  But  the  points  presented  in  the 
illustration  are  simple  truths;  and  the  "truth  should  be 
spoken,  though  the  heavens  should  fall."  W^e  repeat  the  in- 
disputable truth,  therefore,  that  a  church  which  allows  her 
members  to  hold  slaves,  is  worse  than  a  church  which  should 
permit  her  members  to  steal  horses.  We  press  this  truth  upon 
the  consciences  of  all  who  retain  membership  in  such  churches. 
It  is  time  this  subject  were  looked  full  in  the  face;  and 
honeyed  phrases  are  not  the  sounds  to  arouse  from  sleep  so 
death-like  as  that  of  the  American  Church.  Especially  is  it 
time  that  professed  friends  of  the  slave,  in  churches  that 
enslave  him,  should  understand  their  position,  which  we  look 
upon  as  peculiarly  dangerous.  The  inconsistency  of  men 
holding  connections  with  churches,  the  principles  of  which 
are  at  war  with  their  own,  is  so  obvious,  that  violence  must 
be  done  to  their  moral  sense  by  retaining  those  connections. 
The  Temperance  man  in  a  grog-selling  and  drinking  church, 
the  believer  in  the  Trinity  in  a  church  of  Unitarians,  and  the 
abolitionists  in  a  slaveholding  church,  arc  so  obviously  out  of 
place,  that  they  retain  their  relations  at  the  risk  of  a  seared 
and  hardened  conscience.  God's  express  command  to  all  is — • 
"  Come  out  of  her,  my  people,  that  ya  he  not  partakers  of  her 
sins,  and  that  yc  receive  not  of  her  plagues." 


Sentiments  against  Slavery. 

A  most  interesting  and  suggestive  article  on  the  sentiment 
of  Great  Britain,  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  will  be  found  in 
another  part  of  our  paper.  It  is  from  the  London  Morning 
Advertiser,  said  to  be  the  second  paper  in  circulation  and 
influence  in  England.  This  article  gives  a  painful  but  truth- 
ful account  of  the  position  and  influence  of  the  clergy  of 
this  country  on  the  subject  of  slavery  ;  and  warns  the  people 
of  England  against  the  corrupting  influence  likely  to  bo 
exerted  on  the  public  mind  of  Great  Britain,  by  an  influx  of 
the  pro-slavery  clergy  of  America  at  the  World's  Fair.     This 


262  LIE-E  AKB  \VlllTmGS  Of 

article  is  interesting  in  several  respects,  but  we  allude  to  it 
mainly  as  suggesting  the  most  feasible  and  certain  way  of 
abolishing  the  blood-stained  system  of  American  Slavery — 
that  is,  hi/  combining  iJie  piihlic  sentiment  of  the  civilized  icorld 
and  cspeciaUy  of  the  Free  States  of  this  confederacy,  against  it. 
The  moment  that  witnesses  correct  views  and  feelings  on  this 
subject,  approximating  to  a  universal  adoption  in  the  civilized 
■world,  and  also  an  appropriate  expression  of  those  views  and 
feelings,  will  witness  the  freedom  of  every  slave  on  American 
soil.  This  will  be  the  case  if  not  a  single  conscience  in  the 
slaveholding  States  is  convinced  of  the  sin  of  slavery.  A 
regard  to  reputation,  if  not  to  justice,  will  compel  the  slave- 
holder to  relax  his  grasp.  Let  us  look  at  some  of  the  reasons 
for  this  belief. 

A  regard  to  the  opinions  of  others  is  a  much  stronger 
motive,  with  the  mass  of  men,  than  regard  to  right  and  jus- 
tice. What  will  the  world  say  ?  is  a  much  more  common 
question  than  what  says  the  Word  of  God  ?  Men  are  often 
deterred  from  the  performance  of  known  duty  by  the  fear  of 
incurring  the  ill  opinion  of  their  fellow-men.  It  has  been, 
in  all  ages,  but  a  very  small  portion  of  the  race  that  have 
been  actuated  in  the  main  course  of  their  lives  and  conduct 
by  the  naked  consideration  of  right  and  duty.  Against  the 
combined  influence  of  a  general  public  sentiment  nothing 
can  sustain  a  person  for  any  length  of  time,  but  a  deep  con- 
sciousness of  right,  and  a  strong  abiding  sense  of  duty.  This 
idea  is  not  abolition  fanaticism,  but  most  orthodox  sentiment, 
preached  from  the  pulpits  of  all  denominations,  in  the  ten 
thousand  warnings  to  sinners  and  Christians,  against  the 
influence  of  evil  associates,  and  against  the  fear  of  the  world. 

Now,  when  any  thing  like  a  general  public  sentiment  is 
concentrated  against  an  evil  practice  or  institution,  there 
being  no  strong  sense  of  duty  in  its  supporters,  but  just  the 
reverse,  it  must  be  abandoned.  There  being  no  innate  vital- 
ity, the  system  must  perish  under  outward  pressure.  This 
truth  might  be  illustrated  and  confirmed  by  reference  to  past 
and  present  reforms.  The  cause  of  temperance  has  been 
advanced  to  its  present  stage,  not  by  convincing  the  con- 
sciences of  all  or  most  of  the  distillers  and  grogsellers  who 
have  abandoned  their  business,  but  by  bringing  the  force  of  a 
public  sentiment,  hostile  to  their  practices,  to  bear  upon  them. 
The  abolition  of  the  slave-trade,  and  of  slavery  in  the  West 
India  Islands,  the  repeal  of  the  corn  laws,  and  the  reforma- 
tion of  tho  penal  code,  by  the  Parliament  of  England,  are  all 


KEV.   JOSEl'H   GOtlDOiN.  '2G2 

examples  of  the  operation  of  the  same  influence.  They  ■were 
all  lanciUing  concessions  to  a  prevalent,  controlling  public 
gentiment. 

The  prevalence  of  an  aiitislavery  sentiment  would,  in  like 
manner,  strike  the  fetters  from  every  slave  in  the  United 
States.  It  could  not  live  a  single  year  surrounded  by  a 
healthful  abolition  atmosphere  in  the  free  States,  Public 
sentiment  -would  seal  its  doom.  Make  it  unpopular,  and  its 
days  are  numbered.  This  consideration  derives  additional 
force  from  the  peculiar  character  of  the  Southern  people. 
They  are  proverbially  jealous  of  their  honor.  An  imputation 
of  dishonorable  conduct  to  a  Southern  man,  is  an  insult  to  be 
■wiped  out  only  -with  blood.  This  is  peculiarly  the  case  ■with 
slaveholders,  for,  are  they  not  a  "  chivalrous  "  race  ?  No^w, 
let  every  one  of  these  once  realize  that  his  fello^w-'mcn,  in  all 
civilized  communities,  look  upon  him  as  a  thief —  as  having 
appropriated  to  his  o^wn  use,  as  property,  human  beings  whose 
right  to  own  themselves  is  inalienable-— let  them 

"  V/ritliing,  feel  ■<vhere'er  they  turn, 
A  world's  reproach  around  them  Lurn ;  " 

and  he  ■who  believes  slavery  can  survive,  must  be  blind  indeed. 
This  matter  is  well  understood  by  the  slaveholders.  The 
ablest  and  most  far-seeing  of  Southern  statesmen,  John  C. 
Calhoun,  once  declared,  that  what  the  South  had  to  fear  from 
the  abolitionists  was  not  an  attempt  to  liberate  the  slaves  by 
force,  but  appeals  to  their  consciences,  and  to  the  sentiment 
of  the  world  against  them.  "  Th^ir  icarfare^'^  said  he,  "  ?'* 
not  vpon  our  persons,  hut  upon  our  characters.'' 

This  is  a  perfectly  legitimate  influence,  to  bring  to  bear 
against  slavery.  It  does  no  injustice  to  the  slaveholders. 
To  affirm  that  it  does,  would  be  more  absurd  than  to  say  that 
the  public  sentiment  which  brands  the  common  thief  with 
infamy  is  unjust.  "We  say  more  absurd,  because  we  believe 
■Vi'ith  the  General  Assembly,  that  "  slaveholding  is  the  high- 
est kind  of  theft."  Proportionally  strong  should  be  its  con- 
demnation and  the  infamy  attached  to  its  perpetrators.  It  ia 
God's  will  that  crime  should  be  unpopular.  He  regards  it 
with  infinite  abhorrence,  and  men  have  no  right  to  regard  it 
in  any  other  way.  The  abhorrence  of  the  crime  mvi>t  attach 
to  the  criminal,  so  long  as  he  willfully  continues  in  its  com- 
mission. This  is  a  law  of  God's  own  enacting,  and  it  is  inex- 
orable. In  but  one  way  can  the  sinner  escape  the  disgrace 
of  the  sin  ;  that  is,  by  repentance  and  reformation.     While 


264  LIPI3  AND   WRITINGS   OF 

lie  continues  on  in  a  willful  course  of  wrong  doing,  God 
intended  that  he  should  feel,  both  for  his  restraint  and  pun- 
ishment, the  reproach  of  the  virtuous  burning  into  his  soul. 
It  is  this  influence  wc  would  concentrate  on  the  slaveholder  and 
his  sin.  It  is  not  violence  Vve  advocate.  We  would  not  have 
a  hair  of  his  head  injured.  But  would  rouse  against  him  the 
calm,  yet  deep  abhorrence  of  every  soul  that  loves  liberty. 
Let  the  slaveholder,  when  he  turns  his  eye  to  a  free  State, 
behold  the  light  of  freedom,  as  a  wall  of  fire,  throwing  its 
rays  far  into  the  depths  of  the  dungeons  of  slavery.  Let 
him,  as  he  sets  his  foot  on  the  soil  of  a  free  State,  read  in 
every  countenance  the  deep  loathing  for  himself  and  hi.s 
crime,  which  ought  to  be  felt.  Let  the  cry  of  "shame  on  the 
man-thief"  ring  out  till  the  very  heavens  reverberate  with 
the  sound,  and  roll  it  back  in  echoes  of  thunder ;  and  that 
sound  will  be  the  trump  of  jubilee  to  the  slave. 

Do  some  timid  doughfaces  say  they  will  dissolve  the 
Union  if  this  state  of  sentiment  is  created?  Will  that  make 
slavery  more  respectable,  or  diminish  the  abhorrence  with 
which  all  freemen  regard  it?  Will  that  hush  the  voice  of 
indignant  remonstrance  from  the  civilized  world?  Will  a 
dissolution  of  the  Union  pile  up  inaccessible  mountains,  or 
stretch  impassable  deserts  between  the  slave  States  and  the 
free?  It  would  but  aggravate  the  thing  complained  of  by 
the  South,  in  every  particular.  This  the  slaveholders  know 
full  well,  and  hence,  notwithstanding  all  the  bluster  with 
which  they  are  wont  to  affright  the  serviles  of  the  North, 
would  rather  liberate  the  last  slave  they  own,  than  suff'er  one 
link  of  the  chain  that  binds  the  States  together  to  be  severed. 

It  is  needless  to  remark  that  the  very  reverse  of  this  spirit 
of  abhorrence  for  slavery  prevails  in  the  nominally  free  States. 
It  is  the  opponents  of  slavery  generally  that  are  the  objects 
of  reproach.  This  is  no  more  strange  than  true.  In  the  land 
boasted  as  the  freest  on  earth,  those  guilty  of  practicing  "  the 
vilest  system  of  oppression  that  ever  saw  the  sun,"  are  the 
most  caressed  and  popular  class  in  tho  nation,  while  those 
who  oppose  the  bloody  system,  are  the  most  reviled  and  hated. 
Antislavery  survives  this  ordeal  because  it  is  of  G-od.  The 
reform  is  based  on  truth  that  can  not  die,  and  "  the  eternal 
years  of  God  are  hers."  But  let  the  tide  once  be  reversed, 
and  slavery — containing  as  it  does  within  itself  the  seeds  of 
death — will  die  under  the  consuming  breath  of  a  nation's 
scorn.  It  lives  now  because  cherished  by  a  prevailing  eenti= 
ment  in  its  favor  in  the  eo-called  free  States. 


REV.  JOSEPH  GORDON.  265 

It  is  in  view  of  this  indisputable  fact  that  the  guilt  of  the 
American  Church  is  seen  in  all  its  magnitude.  The  Church 
creates  and  controls  j^uhlic  sentiment  in  this  country.  With  one 
hundred  thousand  ministers,  jDreaching  weekly  to  more  than 
ten  millions  of  people,  her  power  over  public  opinion  must 
be  almost  omnipotent.  Her  combined  attacks,  with  the 
weapons  of  truth,  on  slavery  or  any  other  system  of  crime, 
would  be  perfectly  irresistible.  Hence  it  is  that  the  American 
Church  has  been  correctly  denominated  "  the  bulwark  of 
American  slavery."  "  She  holds  the  key  of  the  prison-house 
of  the  slave,"  and  not  only  refuses  to  unlock  it,  but  is  busy 
forging  additional  bars  and  bolts  to  hold  him  more  securely 
in  his  chains.  The  plea,  so  often  urged  in  defense  of  the 
Church,  that  she  has  no  power  to  abolish  slavery,  is  false.  If 
true,  it  would  be  to  her  disgrace,  that,  with  such  vast  resources 
of  numbei's,  wealth,  learning  and  talents,  she  was  thus  pow- 
erless. But  it  is  not  true.  In  regard  to  political  power,  with 
half  a  million  voters  in  her  communion,  she  holds  the  balance 
between  the  parties  in  the  country,  and  if  true  to  her  duty 
in  the  exercise  of  this  power,  she  could  make  it  tell  mightily 
on  the  cause  of  freedom.  JBut  when  this  is  combined  with 
her  moral  power  over  the  public  heart  and  conscience,  it  is 
no  exaggeration  to  say  that  no  system  of  crime  in  this  land 
could  stand  one  year  against  it. 

In  view  of  this  power  in  the  hands  of  the  Church,  the  anti- 
slavery  men  turned  to  her  for  help  in  the  early  stage  of  the 
cause.  A  few  glorious  spirits  responded,  and  the  Church  to 
her  honor  has  furnished  some  of  the  most  devoted  laborers, 
and  some  of  the  martyrs  in  the  cause.  But  the  vast  majority 
of  her  ministers  and  members  "knew  not  the  day  of  their 
merciful  visitation."  They  rejected  the  call  of  God  to  this 
glorious  work,  and  joined  hands  with  the  oppressor  ;  and  in 
accordance  with  an  invariable  rule  of  Divine  precedure,  have 
been  left  to  "  blindness  of  mind  and  hardness  of  heart"  on 
this  subject.  As  the  consequence,  we  find  the  Church  and  the 
clergy  nov/,  in  the  van  of  the  defenders  of  slavery,  and  the 
fugitive  slave  bill,  with  all  its  unspeakable  atrocities.  Their 
reformation  is  therefore  hopeless. 

There  is,  hence,  but  one  course  left  to  the  friends  of  God 
and  his  oppressed  poor — that  is  to  destroy  the  present  large 
ecclesiastical  organizations  of  the  country,  and  substitute 
others  in  their  place  which  v/ill  do  the  work  for  which  God 
instituted  his  Church.  Having  become  welded  indissolubly 
to  the  foul  system  of  slavery,  they  must  sink  with  it,  xinder 
9.^ 


266  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS  OF 

that  tide  of  universal  execration,  which  is  rising  to  overwhelm 
the  bloody  abomination.  As  a  significant  indication  of  the 
rise  and  direction  of  the  current,  the  article  from  the  London 
Advertiser  possesses  special  interest. 


Religious  Instruction  of  Slaves. 

As  the  text  of  a  short  discourse  on  this  subject,  we  copy 
the  following  paragraphs  from  one  of  our  exchanges  : 

"  Colored  Presbyterian  Church. — The  congregation  of 
the  Second  Presbyterian  Church,  Rev.  Dr,  Smyth's  in  Charles- 
ton, South  Carolina,  have  erected  a  house  of  worship  for  the 
use  of  the  colored  portion  of  their  congregation—their  gal- 
leries having  become  to  small  to  accommodate  the  congrega- 
tion that  desired  to  assemble  with  them. 

"The  house  of  worship  is  in  a  simple  Gothic  style,  and  in 
the  shape  of  a  capital  T— the  transepts  or  wings  being 
appropriated  for  the  use  of  white  persons. 

"The  entire  cost  of  this  church,  including  the  lot  and  a 
small  building  in  the  rear  used  for  Sunday-school  purposes, 
will  be  about  §7,700;  of  this  there  are  about  §1,600  due  over 
and  above  funds  that  are  now  in  hand. 

"  Those  who  may  become  church-members  will  be  received 
into  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church,  by  its  session,  after 
careful  examination,  and  remain  always  under  the  ecclesiasti- 
cal watch  and  control  of  that  body.  The  congregation  there- 
fore will  be  part  and  parcel  of  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church. 

"  The  session  is  to  appoint  the  minister  and  provide  for  his 
salary.  They  have  secured  the  services  of  Rev.  J.  B.  Adger, 
a  returned  missionary  of  the  American  Board.  The  Sabbath- 
school  connected  with  the  church  numbers  150  pupils,  taught 
by  twenty-five  to  thirty  of  the  white  members  of  the  church. 
The  Rev.  Dr.  Thornwell,  preached  the  dedication  sermon, 
on  the  26th  of  May,  to  an  immense  congregation.  The  South- 
ern Prcsht/terian  says:  '  It  was  one  of  the  most  masterly  dis- 
courses we  have  ever  heard  from  him.  It  was  a  j)owerful 
vindication  of  the  rights  of  Southern  slaveholders  and  the  duties 
of  Southern  Christians.'  " 

This  fact  is  interesting  and  instructive.  Dr.  Thornwell,  as 
is  well  known,  is  one  of  the  most  talented,  popular  and  influ- 
ential ministers  of  the  Old  School  Presbyterian  Church. 
Three  years  ago  he  occupied  the   Moderator's   chair  in  the 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  267 

General  Assembly.  It  is  reasonable,  therefore,  to  suppose 
that  his  preaehinp;  to  slaves  is  a  fair  specimen  of  the  kind  of 
religious  instruction  they  generally  receive.  The  points 
selected  by  a  man  of  Dr.  Thornwell's  standing,  at  the  dedica- 
tion of  a  church  for  the  use  of  slaves,  no  doubt  occupy  a 
most  prominent  place  in  whatever  of  religious  teaching  is 
ordinarily  given  them.  What,  then  was  the  Doctor's  theme? 
"^  vindication  of  (he  rights  of  Southern  slaveholders  and  the 
duties  of  Southern  Christians  " — that  is,  of  course,  the  rights 
of  Southern  slaveholders  to  hold  their  slaves.  This  is  the 
07ili/  right  slaveholders,  as  such,  claim  or  exercise.  If,  there- 
fore, other  rights  were  meant,  they  v.'ould  be  called  the  rights 
of  Southern  men,  or  citizens,  or  Christians,  not  "  the  rights 
of  Southern  slaveholders." 

In  regard  to  the  general  object  of  the  religious  instruction 
of  slaves,  two  facts  can  be  indisputably  established  : 

I.  That  any  religious  instruction  ibr  slaves,  which  claims 
for  the  master  the  right  to  hold  them  in  slavery,  and  enjoins 
on  them  the  duty  to  submit  to  his  authority  as  lawful  and 
right,  is  a  positive  injury  to  the  slave; 

II.  That  this  is  the  kind  of  teaching  the  slaves  do  receive 
from  Southern  professing  Christians. 

The  first  of  these  propositions  requires  little  proof.  There 
is  a  principle  implanted  by  God  in  every  human  soul,  which 
tells  the  man  he  has  a  right  to  be  free.  This  principle  i.s 
stronger  than  any  other  conviction  which  it  is  possible  to 
engraft  on  the  soul.  It  rises  above  the  authority  of  human 
law;  and  if  a  pretended  revelation  from  God  should  assert 
that  the  man  was  born  to  be  enslaved,  he  would  feel  that  the 
writing  of  Deity  on  his  heart,  contradicted  its  assertion  and 
stamped  it  as  a  lie.  Hence,  when  the  Bible  is  tortured  into  a 
justification  of  the  Divine  right  of  slavery,  in  the  hearing  of 
the  slave,  he  comes  inevitably  to  one  of  two  conclusions : 
either,  that  the  Bible  is  false,  or  that  his  teacher  is  falsifying 
its  teachings.  Either  conclusion  must  be  fatal  to  any  good 
impression  on  his  mind. 

But  it  is  not  by  argument  that  we  purpose  to  establish  this 
position  ;  we  have  the  most  abundant  and  conclusive  testimony 
on  the  point.  To  show  that  nothing  can  obliterate  from 
the  mind  of  the  slave  the  innate  consciousness  of  his  birth- 
right to  freedom,  we  present  the  following  truthful  and  beau- 
tiful extract  from  the  speech  of  James  McDov,'ell  (since  Gov- 
ernor of  Virginia,  and  now  a  Member  of  Congress),  in  the 
Legislature  of  that  State,  in  1832. 


268  LIFE   AND  WRITINGS   OF 

"  Sir,  you  may  place  tlie  slave  where  you  please — you  may 
dry  up,  to  your  utmost,  the  fountain  of  his  feelings,  the 
springs  of  his  thoughts — you  may  close  npon  his  mind  every 
avenue  to  knowledge,  and  cloud  it  over  with  artificial  night — 
you  may  yoke  him  to  your  labor  as  the  ox  which  liveth  only 
to  work,  and  worketh  only  to  live — you  may  put  him  under 
any  process  which,  without  destroying  his  value  as  a  slave, 
will  debase  and  crush  him  as  a  rational  being — you  may  do 
this,  and  the  idea  that  he  was  born  to  be  free  will  survive  it 
all.  It  is  allied  to  his  hope  of  immortality — it  is  the  ethereal 
part  of  his  nature  which  oppression  can  not  reach— it  is  a 
torch  lit  up  in  his  soul  by  the  hand  of  the  Deity,  and  never 
meant  to  be  extinguished  by  the  hand  of  man." 

In  view  of  the  truth  so  eloquently  expressed  in  this  extract, 
it  is  obvious  that  a  religion  which  tells  the  slave  that  he  was 
born  for  bondage,  and  that,  therefore,  this  glorious  instinct  of 
his  nature  is  not  of  God,  must  come  to  him  with  the  evidence 
of  its  falsity  on  its  very  face  ;  and,  therefore,  though  through 
fear  or  flattery  he  may  affect  to  receive  it,  in  heart  he  utterly 
rejects  it. 

But  on  this  point  we  have  testimony  still  more  directly  in 
point.  It  is  that  of  llcv.  C.  C.  Jones,  D.  D.,  who  has  been 
devoted  for  years  to  the  (so-called)  religious  instruction  of  ihe 
slaves.  In  his  rules  for  the  direction  of  others  engaged  in 
the  same  work,  occurs  this  language  : 

"  Do  nothing  without  the  master's  consent.  Teach  them 
what  Paul  directed  slaves  to  do  and  be ;  but  beware  of  press- 
ing these  duties  too  strongly  and  frequently,  lest  you  beget 
the  fatal  suspicion  that  you  are  but  executing  a  selfish  scheme 
of  the  white  man  to  make  them  better  slaves,  rather  than  to 
make  them  Christ's  freemen.  If  tlieij  suspect  tliis  you  labor  in 
vai)i." 

If  to  suspect  this  motive  is  to  render  the  teacher's  efforts  vain, 
surely  when  they  openly  teach  that  the  Bible  sanctions  the 
claim  of  the  master  to  the  body  and  soul  of  the  slave,  the 
effect  must  be  something  worse  than  vain. 

Leaving  this  point,  in  proof  of  which  we  have  abundance 
more  testimony,  we  pass  to  consider  pur  second  point :  That 
in  the  religious  instruction  which  the  slaves  geneniUij  receive, 
the  Divine  right  of  the  master  to  hold  them  in  bondage,  and 
their  consequent  duty  to  submit  to  his  authority  as  right,  is 
one  of  the  most  important  elements,  and  that,  therefore,  this 
instruction  is  a  positive  curse,  instead  of  a  blessing.  Let 
not  our  position  be  misunderstood.     We  do  not  object  to  the 


PvEV.    JOSEPH   GORDON.  269 

slaves  being  taught  that  it  is  their  duty  to  submit  peaceably, 
for  conscience  sake,  to  the  wicked  claim  of  their  masters,  until 
they  can  by  lawful  means  get  free;  but  to  the  inculcation  of 
the  rif/ht  of  the  masters  to  enslave  them,  and  that  hence  God 
has  placed  them  and  wishes  them  to  remain  in  this  situation. 
To  the  proof  of  this,  furnished  by  the  extract  at  the  head  of 
this  article,  we  have  already  alluded.  A  sermon  by  the  lead- 
ing Presbyterian  preacher  at  the  South  (for  this  Dr.  Thorn- 
well  emphatically  is),  at  the  dedication  of  a  church  for  their 
especial  use,  contains  '•  a  powerful  vindication  of  the  rights 
of  Southern  slaveholders."  But  we  have  other  testimony, 
the  character  and  quality  of  which  establishes  this  point 
beyond  a  question,  if  human  testimony  can  establish  any- 
thing. 

In  the  first  place,  the  instruction  contemplated  is  usually 
only  oral.  In  an  article  on  the  religious  instruction  of  slaves 
in  the  Frinccton  Review,  extracts  from  a  number  of  letters 
are  given,  which  the  Revieio  says  are  from  "  clergymen  of 
high  standing  in  several  different  denominations  ;  from  law- 
yers, physicians,  judges,  members  of  Congress,  intelligent 
planters  and  others  residing  in  Virginia  and  Texas,  and 
other  States  lying  between  them."  From  these  letters,  thus 
vouched  for,  we  give  the  following  extracts.     One  says : 

"  Under  present  circumstances,  it  is  evident  that  they  who 
engage  in  the  delicate  business  of  instructing  our  slaves, 
must  confine  themselves  to  the  method  of  oral  comm.unica- 
tioo.  But  this  limitation  should  not  produce  the  slightest 
discouragement.  Written  documents  bore  but  a  small  part 
in  the  early  propagation  of  Christianity.  Until  the  present 
age,  indeed,  the  mass  of  the  people  have  received  by  far  the 
greater  part  of  their  religious  knowledge  and  impression.^ 
from  the  mouth  of  the  living  teacher.  Even  now,  perhaps, 
the  majority  in  our  own  country  have  their  religious  princi- 
ples and  character  formed  mainly  by  oral  instruction." 

Another  says : 

"  On  the  modes  of  communicating  a  saving  knowledge  of 
Divine  truth  to  the  colored  population,  best  suited  to  their 
genius,  habits  and  condition,  we  must  remember  that  oral 
instruction  is  the  kind  of  instruction  alone  that  is  univer- 
sally allowed  in  slaveholding  States.  Hence,  the  question 
with  us  will  be,  in  what  mode  can  oral  instruction  be  best 
communicated?  " 

The  Synod  of  A^irginia,  a  few  years  ago,  passed  the  follow- 
ins:  resolution  : 


270  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS  OF 

Eesohed,  That  the  Synod  would  recommend,  wherever  it 
may  be  practicable,  the  establishment  of  Sabbath-schools  for 
the  ORAL  instruction  of  the  colored  people." 

In  view  of  the  fact  thus  established,  we  see  that  Roman 
Catholicism  is  not  confined  to  the  Church  of  Rome.  One  of 
the  worst  features  of  the  policy  of  that  Church — the  giving 
of  mere  oral  instruction — has  been  deliberately  adopted  and 
openly  recommended  by  the  Protestant  churches  of  this 
country  in  reference  to  the  slave  population.  We  now  pre- 
sent a  few  facts  illustiating  the  nature  of  this  oral  instruction. 
We  have  already  said  that  one  of  the  points  most  insisted  on 
is  the  right  of  the  master  to  hold  his  slave  in  bondage,  and 
their  consequent  duty  to  submit  to  him  as  placed  over  them 
by  God.  In  proof  of  this,  we  first  present  some  extracts 
from  a  book  of  sermons,  intended  especially  for  the  use  of 
masters  and  mistresses,  in  the  instruction  of  their  slaves,  by 
Rt.  Rev.  Wm.  Meade,  Assistant  Bishop  of  Virginia.  The 
Princeton  Revieiv  indorses  his  discourse  on  this  subject,  call- 
ing it  "  a  manly  and  Christian  publication."  Says  the  Bishop: 
"Almighty  God  hath  been  pleased  to  make  you  slaves 
hei'e,  and  to  give  you  nothing  but  labor  and  poverty  in  this 
world,  which  you  arc  obliged  to  submit  to,  as  it  is  His  will 
that  it  should  be  so." 
Again  : 

"Having  thus  shown  you  the  chief  duties  you  owe  to  your 
great  Master  in  Heaven,  I  now  come  to  lay  before  you  the 
duties  you  owe  to  your  masters  and  mistresses  here  upon 
earth.  And  for  this  you  have  one  general  rule  that  you 
ought  always  to  carry  in  your  minds,  and  that  is,  to  do  all  ser- 
vice for  them  as  if  you  did  it  for  God  himstlfT 
And  again  ; 

"  Now,  from  this  general  rule,  namely,  that  you  are  to  do 
all  service  for  your  masters  and  mistresses  as  if  you  did  it  for 
God  Himself  there  arise  several  other  rules  of  duty  toward 
your  masters  and  mistresses,  which  I  shall  endeavor  to  lay 
out  in  order  before  you. 

"  And,  in  the  first  place,  yon  are  to  he  ohedient  and  suhject 
to  your  masters  i?i  all  things.  ^  ^  ^  And  Christian  minis- 
ters are  commanded  to  '  exhort  servants  to  he  ohedient  vntn 
their  masters,  and  to  please  them  well  in  all  things,  not 
answering  again,  or  gainsaying.'  You  see  how  strictly  God 
requires  of  you,  that  whatever  your  77iaslers  and  mistresses 
order  you  to  do,  you  must  set  about  it  immediately,  and 
faithfully  perform   it.  without  any  disputing  or  grumbling, 


EEV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  271 

and  take  care  to  please  tliem  well  in  all  things.  And  for 
your  encouragement,  he  tells  you  that  he  will  reward  you  for 
it  in  heaven  :  because  while  you  are  honestly  and  faithfully 
doing-  your  master's  business  here  you  are  serving  your  Lord 
and  Master  in  heaven.  You  see,  also,  that  you  are  not  to  take 
any  exceptions  to  the  behaviour  of  your  masters  and  mis- 
tresses, and  that  you  are  to  be  subject  and  obedient,  not  only 
to  such  as  are  good,  and  gentle,  and  mild  toward  you,  but 
also  to  such  as  may  he  froward,  peevish  and  hai-d.  For  you 
are  not  at  liberty  to  choose  your  own  masters,  but  into  what- 
ever hands  God  hath  been  pleased  to  put  you,  you  must  do 
your  duty,  and  God  will  reward  you  for  it." 

In  these  passages,  slavery,  for  the  perpetratoi-s  of  which, 
Adam  Clark  declared  "  perdition  had  scarcely  an  adequate 
penalty,"  is  directly  charged  upon  that  God,  the  habitation 
of  whose  throne  is  justice  and  judgment."  We  present  but 
another  extract  on  this  point: 

"Rev.  Joshua  Boucher,  formerly  a  minister  of  the  INIeth- 
odist  Episcopal  Church,  states  that  the  slaves  of  the  South 
are  told  that  God  made  them  black  with  the  design  that  they 
should  be  slaves;  and  that,  when  traveling  and  preaching  in 
the  South,  another  preacher,  belong  to  the  same  church, 
related  the  following  conversation,  which  took  place  between 
himself  and  a  slave  boy : 

"  Minister.  '  Have  you  any  reliiriou  ?  ' 

"  Boi/.  '  No,  sir.' 

"  Minister.  '  Don't  you  want  religion  ?  ' 

'■'•Boy.  '  No,  sir.' 

"  Minister.  '  Don't  you  love  God  ?  ' 

"  Bog.  'What!  me  love  God,  who  made  me  with  a  black 
skin,  and  white  man  to  whip  mc ! ' 

"  A  man,  who  had  been  held  as  a  slave  near  General  John 
II.  Cocke's  plantation,  in  Virginia,  where  a  meeting-house 
was  erected  to  afford  slaves  an  opportunity  of  listening  to 
special  preaching,  asked  me  if  it  was  in  the  Bible  that  he 
should  be  a  slave,  and  said  they  had  always  told  him  it  was 
there,  and  said  they  (the  colored  people)  should  be  slaves." 

To  complete  the  picture,  nothing  but  a  suitable  motive  is 
wanting  to  account  for  the  zeal  manifested  for  the  religious 
instruction  of  slaves.  This  is  clearly  furnished  by  the  fol- 
lowing extracts,  which  are  taken  from  letters  written  by  a 
number  of  gentlemen  in  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  in 
answer  to  a  circular  asking  information  on  the  subject  of 


272  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS  OP 

"the  influence  of  religious  instruction  upon  the  discipline  of 
plantations,  and  the  spirit  of  subordination  of  the  negroes." 

James  Edward  Henry  writes  from  Spartansburg  district, 
May,  1845,  as  follows  : 

"A  near  neighbor  of  mine,  a  prominent  member  of  the 
church  to  which  he  belonged,  had  contented  himself  with 
giving  his  people  the  usual  religious  privileges.  About  six 
months  ago  he  commenced  giving  them  special  religious 
instruction.  lie  used  Jones'  Catechism  principally.  ^  ^=  ^ 
He  states  that  he  has  now  comparatively  no  trouble  in  their 
management." 

Thomas  Cook  writes  from  Marlborough  district.  May,  1845  : 

"  Plantations  under  religious  instruction  are  more  easily 
governed  than  those  that  are  not." 

John  Dyson  writes  from  Sumpter  district.  May,  1845  : 

"Upon  the  discipline  and  subordination  of  plantations, 
religious  instruction  will  be  found  generally  and  decidedly 
beneficial." 

William  Curtis  writes  from  Richland  district.  May,  1845 : 

"  I  have  found  the  owners  of  plantations  around  not  only 
willing  but  desirous  that  we  should  preach  to  their  negroes ; 
and  they  find,  as  they  expected,  a  better  spirit  and  subordina- 
tion among  them." 

James  Giliam  writes  from  Abbeville  district,  May,  1 845 : 

'■'•The  deeper  the  piety  of  the  slave,  the  more  valuable  is  he  in 
every  ^ense  of  the  word.'' 

Nicholas  Ware  writes  from  Brownsville,  Marlborough  dis- 
trict. May,  1845  : 

"  All  our  negroes  have,  to  a  great  extent,  grown  up  under 
religious  instruction.  '■>  <^  ^  We  scarcely  hear  of  depre- 
dations upon  stock,  etc.  They  are  more  obedient  and  more 
to  be  depended  on.  We  have  few  or  no  runaways,  and  cor- 
poreal punishment  is  seldom  resorted  to." 

N.  R.  Middleton  writes  from  St.  Andrew's  Parish,  May, 
1845 : 

"  A  regard  to  self-interest  should  lead  every  planter  to 
give  his  people  religious  instruction." 

John  Rivers  writes  from  Colleton  district,  May,  1845  : 

"Religious  instruction  promotes  the  discipline  and  sub- 
ordination on  plantations." 

Our  limits  do  not  allow  us  to  present  further  testimony, 
nor  is  it  necessary.  If  there  is  one  thing  true  beyond  all 
dispute,  it  is  that  the  slaves  are  habitually  taught  by  preach- 


IIEV.    JOSEPH    GORDONv  27B 

'•srs  and  otLers,  that  G-od  has  given  their  masters  a  right  to 
enslave  them,  aiid  hence,  that  they  are  bound  to  submit  to  all 
the  hardships  of  their  lot,  as  to  his  will.  The  inevitable 
couclusion,  if  they  believe  these  teachings,  is,  that  God  is  a 
partial  tyrant,  and  therefore  a  being  to  be  feared  and  hated, 
not  to  be  loved.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  they  do  not  believe 
their  religious  instructors,  then  they  must  set  them  down  as 
hypocrites,  and  with  ignorant  minds,  it  will  be  a  natural 
conclusion  that  their  religion  has  made  them  such.  In  either 
case,  therefore,  the  influence  of  such  instruction  must  be  fatal 
to  any  correct  ideas  of  Chi'istianity,  and  to  all  right  religious 
impressions  on  their  minds.  We  mourn  that  such  should  be 
the  case.  The  consolations  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ 
are  eminently  fitted  to  sweeten  the  bitter  cup  of  slavery. 
But  the  perverted  and  falsified  gospel  they  receive  only 
tends  to  make  the  bitterness  more  intense.  To  tell  them  they 
suffer  unjustly,  and  exhort  them  to  bear  it  meekly  for  the 
love  of  God,  would  be  right.  But  to  tell  them  God  wills  and 
approves  their  oppression,  is  to  present  him  to  their  minds 
as  a  great  Almighty  slaveholder,  and  therefore  a  tyrant,  hating 
and  hateful  in  his  character. 

We  take  no  pleasure  in  exposures  of  this  kind.  But  one 
■of  the  most  common  defenses  now  set  up  for  the  slaveholding 
churches  of  this  land  is,  that  their  members  and  ministers 
are  actively  engaged  in  the  religious  instruction  of  their 
slaves,  and  thus  doing  all  they  cau  to  ameliorate  their  condi- 
tion and  prepare  them  for  freedom.  That  in  rare  iRStanees  this 
may  be  the  case  we  do  not  deny;  but  any  one  who  will  look 
dispassionately  at  the  facts  we  have  presented,  must  conclude 
that  the  religious  instruction  of  the  slaves  is  only,  in  the 
vast  majority  of  cases,  a  selfish  scheme  t-o  make  the  slaves 
more  docile  and  honest,  and  thus  increase  their  value.  This 
is  Utcrallif  making  "  a  gain  of  godliness."  Of  all  the  crimes 
with  whicli  slavery  stands  convicted,  one  of  the  worst  is  its 
impious  perversions  of  the  Bible  and  its  blasphemous  misrep- 
resentations of  the  character  of  God.  This  compound  of 
lust  and  blood  is  represented  as  harmonizing  with  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Bible,  and  therefore  with  the  character  of  G-od, 
for  the  Bible  is  but  a  copy  of  his  character.  And  to  make 
the  hold  of  the  oppressor  more  secure,  the  sanctions  of  that 
Bible  are  urged  in  its  support,  and  the  religious  susceptibili- 
ties of  the  slave  are  so  trained  as  to  rivet  his  fetters  more 
firmly  on  his  limbs. 

Yet  this  kind  of  instruction  is  all  that  is  compatible  with 


274  LIFE   AND  WRITINGS   OF 

the  condition  of  slavery.  Hence,  the  inevitable  conclusion 
is,  that  the  first  step  to  the  enlightening  and  Christianizing 
the  slave  is,  his  entire  and  unconditional  emancipation. 


Bible  Revision. 

Our  readers  are  probably  aware  that  a  portion  of  the  Bap- 
tist Church  in  this  country  have  a  society  of  recent  origin, 
called  the  Bible  Union,  the  professed  object  of  which  is  to 
get  up  a  revised  and  improved  translation  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures. We  have  never  thought  very  highly  of  the  wisdom  of 
this  movement.  In  the  first  place  we  do  not  think  the  schol- 
arship necessary  to  this  work  is  to  be  found  in  this  country, 
and  least  of  all  is  to  be  found  in  the  Baptist  Church.  It 
requires  a  peculiar  education  to  fit  a  man  for  the  task  of 
translating  the  Scriptures.  He  ought,  in  the  first  place,  to 
be  familiar  with  the  langiiages  in  which  they  were  written — ■ 
Greek,  Hebrew,  and  Chaldce — as  with  his  mother  tongue. 
He  ought  to  understand  the  cognate  languages,  Arabic,  Syr- 
iac,  Aramaic,  etc.  He  ought  further  to  be  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  geography,  topogriiphy,  geology,  climate, 
and  natural  productions  of  the  countries  in  which  the  Scrip- 
tures were  written.  He  ought  to  be  minutely  acquainted 
with  the  state  of  the  arts  and  sciences  of  the  people  among 
whom  the  sacred  writers  lived,  and  with  their  social  and 
domestic  habits,  their  political  institutions,  their  modes  and 
habits  of  thought,  their  manner  of  transacting  business,  their 
currency,  commerce,  agriculture,  etc.,  etc.,  as  all  these  furnish 
illustrations  to  the  sacred  writers.  In  addition  to  all  this 
he  should  know  all  that  may  be  known  from  profane  history 
of  the  nations  among  whom,  and  the  times  in  which,  the 
inspired  penman  wrote. 

Now  men  with  this  training,  and  these  acquirements,  are 
not  to  be  found  in  this  age  and  country.  A  i'ew  such  might 
be  found  in  the  German  Universities,  but  the  majority  of 
them  are  rationalists  and  infidels.  Certainly  we  should  not 
look  for  them  among  the  Baptists  of  this  country. 

In  view  of  this  fact  it  does  not  savor  much  of  a  becoming 
modesty  in  the  Bible  Union,  to  attempt  a  translation  that 
shall  supersede  the  one  now  in  use.  That  translation  was 
made  when  the  studies  into  the  languages  and  literature  of 
the  Scriptures,  which  attended  and  followed  the  Reformation, 


REV.   JOSEPH    GORDON.  ^75 

bad  reached  their  hight.  A  liberal  education  in  that  age 
consisted  mainly  of  an  acquaintance  with  Latin,  Hebrew, 
Greek,  and  the  pure  ruathematics.  The  great  minds  of  the 
age  were  occupied  with  theological  and  esegetical  studies, 
which  is  not  the  case  now.  As  their  minds  were  confined  to 
a  narrower  range  of  studies  than  now  make  up  a  liberal  edu- 
cation, they  would  of  course  acquire  a  more  thorough  acquaint- 
ance with  what  they  did  study.  What  they  lacked  in  the 
extension  of  their  field  of  investigation,  they  made  up  in  the 
depth  of  their  researches  into  what  was  open  to  their  view. 
This  kind  of  education  admirably  fitted  them  for  the  work  of 
translating  the  Bible,  and  it  is  a  striking  illustration  of  the 
special  providence  of  God,  and  of  his  care  over  his  own  word, 
that  a  large  number  of  the  most  learned  men  of  that  age  w^ere 
brought  together  for  the  great  work  of  translating  into  Eng- 
lish the  Holy  oracles.  The  translation  itself,  moreover,  illus- 
trates the  same  thing.  There  is  an  accuracy,  a  beauty,  a 
freshness,  and  propriety  in  its  language  that  is  not  found  in 
any  of  the  current  literature  of  the  age  in  which  it  was  made. 
A  few  obsolete  words  might  properly  be  replaced  by  others, 
and  iu  a  few  minor  points  the  received  translation  might  be 
improved.  But  as  a  whole  it  may  be  doubted  if  it  will  ever 
be  amended  to  advantage.  It  has  become  interwoven  with 
the  whole  frame  and  net-work — with  the  very  foundations  of 
thought  and  emotion  in  the  minds  of  all  Christian  people 
who  speak  the  English  tongue. 

In  view  of  these,  and  other  similar  facts,  the  idea  of  a  few 
smatterers  in  sacred  literature  in  this  day  attempting  to  get 
up  a  translation  that  should  supersede  the  magnificent  one 
now  in  use,  has  appeared  to  us  as  one  of  the  greatest  exhibi- 
tions of  folly  vt'hich  the  age  has  witnessed. 

These  a  jjriori  conclusions  are  singularly  confirmed  by 
recent  developments  in  the  history  of  the  Bible  Union.  Its 
president,  and  most  efiicient  agent,  was  the  venerable  Dr. 
Archibald  Maclay,  of  New  York.  He  has  recently  resigned 
his  oifice  in  the  society,  and  given  as  reasons  some  facts  which 
the  papers  call  "astounding  developments."  Such  in  fact 
they  are,  as  the  following  extracts  from  his  pen  will  show. 
We  quote  his  language,  with  the  comments  of  one  of  our 
exchanges.     He  says  : 

"On  being  elected  President  of  the  Union,  in  October, 
1855,  I  found  myself  in  a  position  of  more  direct  and  unquali- 
fied responsibility  ;  and  under  these  circumstances  I  felt  the 
importance   of  becoming  more   particularly  acquainted  \^ith 


276  Lii-E  AND  Writings  of 

the  operations  of  the  body.  I  then,  for  the  first  time,  ascef-' 
tained  who  the  revisers  were  ;  and  found,  to  ray  astonishment, 
that  instead  of  there  having  been  about  forty  individuals  actu- 
ally engaged  in  translating  the  New  Testament,  as  I  had 
understood  from  the  Secretary,  and  often  stated,  there  had 
not  been  more  than  twenty-three  or  twenty-four.  Instead  of 
these  all  being  competent  scholars,  as  I  had  supposed,  and  as 
the  plan  of  the  Union  required,  and  as  is  often  reiterated  in 
the  official  documents  of  the  Union,  some  unquestionably 
lacked  the  essential  qualifications  of  a  translator." 

The  receipts  of  the  society  now  amount  to  850,000  per 
annum.  This  sura  is  expended  upon  this  new  translation, 
and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Maclay  informs  us  how  it  is  done.  "  Prof. 
Conant.  of  Rochester,  has  a  contract  with  the  society  'which 
Secures  to  him,  in.  addition  to  a  salary  of  SI, 200  from  the 
Theological  Serainary,  $2,000  a  year  for  the  portion  of  time 
not  required  in  his  professional  duties,  ii/l  he  shall  have  com- 
pleted  the  Old  Testament,  with  a  copyright  interest,  and  a  per* 
centage  on  future  sales  of  his  translation,  when  published 
with  notes.'  Prof.  Conant  has  already  received  nearly  ^6,000, 
or  three  years'  salary,  and  has  not  completed  one  of  the  hooka 
of  the  Old  Testament.  This  contract  is  binding  on  the  soci- 
ety  till  he  has  finished  the  whole,  and  he  is  only  to  give  his 
leisure  time  to  it ! "' 

Dr.  Maclay  complains  of  the  translation  as  very  much  at 
ftiult.     He  gives  specimens.     Here  are  sorae  : 

"  He  it  is  that  immerses  in  a  holy  spirit."  John  i ;  33. 

"  If  any  one  be  not  born  of  water  and  spirit."  John  iii :  5. 

"  The  Son  can  do  nothing  of  himself,  if  he  sec  not  the 
Father  doing  anything."  John  v :  16. 

"  But  this  he  said  of  the  spirit  which  those  believing  on 
him  were  about  to  receive  ;  for  there  was  not  yet  a  holy  spirit." 
John  vii :  39. 

"And  I  give  to  them  eternal  life,  and  they  shall  not  per'' 
ish,  forever."  John  x  :  28. 

"  Jesus,  therefore,  when  he  saw  her  weeping,  and  the  Jews, 
who  came  with  her,  weeping,  he  groaned  in  the  spirit,  and 
troubled  himself."  John  xi  :   33. 

"Who  were  begotten— not  of  blood,  nor  of  a  will  of  flesh, 
nor  of  a  will  of  man — but  of  God.  And  the  Word  became 
flesh  and  dwelt  among  us  (and  we  saw  his  glory,  a  glory  as  of 
one  only  begotten  of  a  father),  full  of  grace  and  truth." 
John  i :  12-14. 

These  are  by  no  means  the  most  objectionable  renderings. 


REV.   JOSEPH    GORDON.  277 

In  this  and  other  books  are  some  which  I  loould  not  disclose 
to  the  public  eye. 

Dr.  Maclay  found  that  the  rule  of  the  Board,  in  regard  to 
the  received  text,  had  been  violated,  and  the  revisers  had, 
■without  authority,  undertaken  to  decide,  each  for  himself,  in 
regard  to  the  various  copies  or  texts.     He  says  : 

"And  on  a  closer  examination  in  the  department  of  revis- 
ion, I  found  that,  in  addition  to  the  shocking  translations 
already  referred  to,  the  misguided  hand  of  the  reviser  had 
been  rashly  laid  upon  the  original  text,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
without  any  authority  of  the  Board.  It  will  be  recollected 
that  in  the  famous  Amity  street  letter.  Dr.  Williams  charged 
the  Bible  Union  with  improper  secresy,  in  withholding  from 
the  churches  a  knowledge  of  the  Greek  text  to  be  used  as  the 
standard  of  revision  ;  and  in  a  reply,  written  by  Dr.  Judd,  and 
adopted  by  the  Board,  it  was  said  : 

"  '  This  subject  received  our  early  and  prayerful  attention, 
and  after  obtaining  the  most  satisfactory  information  respect- 
ing it,  with  the  counsel  of  competent  advisers,  and  our  own 
mature  deliberation,  we  determined  to  use  the  "  received  text," 
as  critically  edited  by  the  best  scholars  of  the  age,  and  pub- 
lished by  Bagster  &  Sons,  London,  octavo  edition,  1851.' 

"  Previous  to  this,  the  Board  had  established  certain  '  Gen- 
eral Rules  for  the  Direction  of  the  Translators  and  Revisers,' 
of  which  the  third  reads  thus  : 

"  '  Translations  or  revisions  of  the  New  Testament  shall  be 
made  from  the  received  Greek  text,  critically  edited,  with 
known  errors  corrected.' 

"  Also  certain  '  Special  Instruction  to  the  Revisers  of  the 
English  New  Testament,'  of  which  the  first  reads  as  follows : 

"  '  The  common  English  version  must  be  the  basis  of  revis- 
ion ;  the  Greek  text,  Bagster  &  Sons'  octavo  edition  of  1851.'  " 

These  are  all  the  rules  of  the  Union  respecting  the  Greek 
text;  neither  of  them  has  ever  been  abrogated  or  altered; 
and  as  they  stand,  they  admit  of  no  departure  from  the 
"received  text,"  as  critically  edited  (not  by  revisers  of  the 
Bible  Union,  but  by  distinguished  scholars  in  times  past) 
and  .s;<6se(/i/e;i/(y  published  b}'  Bagster  &  Sons  in  1851.  Yet  it 
appeared,  on  examination,  that  some  revisers  had  undertaken 
what  seemed  to  me  to  be  even  more  presumptuous  than  the 
selection  of  some  other  text,  such  as  Griesbach's,  Sholz's, 
Tichcndorf  s,  and  more  unsafe  than  the  preparation  of  a  new, 
independent  recension  by  competent  hands  from  original 
sources  ;  viz.,  a  revision   of  the  "  received  Greek    text,"  by 


278  LIFE    AND    WRITINGS    OF 

weigliing  all  the  different  manuscripts,  to  ascertain  the  rela- 
tive value  of  their  various  readings,  as  given  by  second-hand 
authorities,  varying  or  modifying  these  readings  by  ancient 
versions  and  patristic  writings,  collating  and  comparing  the 
opinions  of  different  editors,  then  selecting  or  rejecting  any 
particular  reading,  according  as  it  was  found  to  be,  in  the 
reviser's  judgment,  genuine  or  spurious  ;  his  English  ver- 
sion being  conformed  to  this  eclectic  edition  of  the  Greek 
text.  In  one  book,  which  came  under  my  observation,  after 
it  had  been  stereotyped,  a  cursory  examination  showed  that 
the  reviser  had  deviated  from  the  "received  Greek  text"  in 
two  places  by  adding  something  to  it ;  in  twelve  places  by 
rejecting  something  of  it.  And  one  of  the  portions  rejected 
as  spurious  embraced  twelve  consecutive  vers's!  In  another 
place  the  following  passage  is  cast  out  of  the  Bible  : 

"  For  an  angel  went  down  at  a  certain  season  into  the  pool, 
and  troubled  the  water ;  whosoever  then  first  after  the  troub- 
ling of  the  water  stepped  in,  was  made  whole  of  whatsoever 
disease  he  had." 

Where  the  common  version  reads : 

"  That  whoever  believeth  in  him  should  not  perish  but 
have  eternal  life," 

The  received  Greek  text  has  been  so  critically  edited  that, 
in  the  revised  English  version,  the  same  passage  reads  thus  : 
"  That  every  one  that  believes  on  him  may  have  eternal  life." 
And  the  rejection  of  "Jesus,"  "John,"  "Christ,"  and 
"Amen,"  are  specimens  of  the  smaller  changes,  which  have 
resulted  from  this  revision  of  the  Greek  text. 

When  Dr.  M.,  being  a  conscientious  man,  got  into  trouble 
over  the  maladministration  of  the  society,  of  which  he  was 
now  the  head  and  most  responsible  officer,  an  effort  is  made 
to  divert  him  from  any  further  examination  of  the  working 
of  the  Union.     He  says  : 

"  The  Secretary  urged  me  to  leave  New  York  and  travel 
abroad  as  an  agent.  I  informed  him  that,  with  the  views 
which  I  then  entertained,  I  could  not  conscientiously  act  in 
the  capacity  of  an  agent ;  that  among  other  things,  I  had 
assured  the  people  that  we  have  competent  scholars  to  trans- 
late the  Scriptures,  and  that  the  funds  of  the  Union  were 
judiciously  and  economically  expended,  but  I  could  do  so 
no  longer ;  that  I  had  aimed  to  live  an  honest  man, 
and  I  meant  to  die  an  honest  man  ;  and  if  I  were  to  go 
out  and  publish  my  honest  impressions  regarding  the  opera- 
tions of  the  Bible   Union,  I  should  only  damage  its  reputa- 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  279 

tion,  which,  under  existine;  circumstances,  I  was  not  prepared 
to  do.  One  would  have  supposed  that  such  a  statement  would 
have  precluded  any  further  request  from  the  Secretary  for  me 
to  go  abroad  as  an  agent  of  the  Union.  His  subsequent  reitera- 
tion of  this  request,  besides  the  imputation  of  a  disbelief  in 
my  own  statement  vfhicli  is  conveyed,  exhibited  such  a  solici- 
tude for  the  services,  and  such  an  indiiFerence  for  the  con- 
scientious views  of  an  agent,  as  equally  surprised  and  pained 
me.  I  was  the  more  resolved  to  examine  thoroughly  the 
whole  policy  and  conduct  of  the  institution  ;  to  inquire  more 
fully  into  the  character  and  qualifications  of  our  revisers,  the 
practical  working  of  our  plan  for  the  production  of  a  revised 
English  version,  the  condition  and  effect  of  our  periodical 
publications,  and  the  appropriate  economy  of  our  expendi- 
tures." 

After  farther  examination  and  further  finding,  he  gives  up 
all  hope  of  reform  and  resigns.     He  says: 

'•Being  fully  satisfied  from  personal  examination,  that  the 
funds  which  I  have  done  so  much  to  collect,  and  which  I 
know  have  been  most  sacredly  devoted,  by  the  rich  and  the 
poor,  to  one  of  the  holiest  purposes  of  Christian  charity,  are 
being  squandered  ;  that  a  vast  amount  is  expended  for  opera- 
tions remote  from  the  one  great  object  of  the  institution  ; 
that  men  are  employed  to  translate  the  word  of  God  who  are 
not  qualified  for  the  work;  that  unwarrantable  translations 
have  been  made,  which,  if  published,  must  bring  into  dis- 
credit the  most  precious  doctrines  of  my  faith,  sap  the  funda- 
mental truths  of  Christianity  as  indubitably  revealed  in  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  and  shake  the  confidence  of  the  people  in 
the  canon  of  the  sacred  writings;  that  such  revisions  are 
likely  to  be  published  for  indiscriminate  circulation  without 
the  previous  precautionary  examination,  provided  for,  and 
required  by  the  plan  and  rules  of  revision,  as  originally 
adopted  by  the  Board ;  that  the  controlling  power  of  the 
institution  has  become  completely  centralized  in  one  man  ; 
and  that  the  exercise  of  that  power  is  not  only  such  as  to  for- 
bid the  hope  of  reform,  but  also  to  blast  the  name  and  influ- 
ence of  every  one  who  advocates  reform  :  feeling  perfectly 
assured  of  all  this,  I  am  compelled  by  a  stern  sense  of  duty, 
to  abandon  the  enterprise,  and  to  free  myself,  as  far  as  possi- 
ble, from  all  further  responsibility  in  its  operations.  And  I 
can  not  doubt  that  my  friends,  when  rightly  informed,  will 
justify  me  in  so  doing." 

The.se  developments   will  doubtless  put  a  quietus  on   the 


280  LIFE   AKD    WKITING'S    OF 

■whole  movement.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  funds  and  the 
labors  of  the  Bible  Union  will  now  be  devoted  to  more  sea- 
sible  and  useful  purposes. 


The  form  of  Godliness  Without  the  Power. 

The  strictest  observance  of  oulvrard  forms  in  a  church  is 
entirely  compatible  -with  its  tutal  apostasy.  We  know  that 
the  popular  belief  is,  in  this  day,  opposed  to  this  truth.  It  is 
a  prevalent  idea  that  so  long  as  a  Church  holds  essential  truth 
in  her  creed,  and  keeps  up  the  public  worship  of  God  in  a 
serious  and  orderly  manner,  that  church  can  not  be  other  thaa 
a  Church  of  Christ.  This  idea  is  held  by  many  honest  peo- 
ple, and  serves  as  a  veil  to  hide  the  moral  deformity  that  is 
often  found  in  the  character  and  conduct  of  the  Church. 
Hence,  when  their  church  is  charged  with  supporting  systems 
of  the  highest  crime,  they  regard  the  charge  as  false  and  slan- 
derous. They  think  of  the  public  congregation  where  Jeho- 
vah is,  to  all  appearance,  devoutly  worshiped.  Their  minds 
revert  to  the  fervent  prayers  and  earnest  exhortations  of  the 
preacher.  His  solemn  warning  to  sinners,  and  beautiful 
exhibitions  of  the  blessedness  of  the  righteous,  come  back  to 
mind.  The  serious,  attentive  faces  of  the  congregation,  as 
they  listen  to  these  proclamations  of  truth,  are  present  to 
their  view.  The  conclusion  from  these  things  is  that  there 
must  be  reality  in  all  this.  This  must  be  true  religion. 
God  must  surely  own  the  church  as  one  of  his,  where  he  is 
thus  worshiped  in  the  solemn  convocation.  Hence  it  can 
not  be  that  their  church  is  one  of  the  bulwarks  of  any  sys- 
tem of  crime. 

The  Bible  furnishes  abundant  evidence  that  all  these  out- 
ward appearances  of  piety  are  strictly  compatible  with  the 
worst  practical  crimes,  and  may  be  found  in  churches  that 
are  uttely  apostate.  Passing  by,  for  tbe  present,  other 
instances  of  this  in  the  Bible,  we  select  one  from  the  prophet 
Micah.  In  the  third  chapter  of  his  prophesy  we  find  this 
language  : 

'■  Hear  this,  I  pvay  yc-u,  ye  beails  of  t!ie  house  of  Jacob,  avid  princes 
of  the  house  of  Israel,  that  abhor  judgment,  and  pervert  ail  equity. 

"  They  build  up  Zion  with  blood,  and  Jerusalem  with  iniquity. 

"The  heads  thereof  judge  for  reward,  and  the  priests  thereof  teacb 
for  hire,  and  the  prophets  thei^tjof  divine  for  money  :  yet  will  they  lean 
upon  the  Lord,  and  say,  is  not  the  Lord  among  u?'.'  none  evil  can  cowo 
upon  us." 


REV.  JOSEPH  GORDON.  281 

That  these  verses  describe  .in  apostate  church,  under  the 
influence  of  apostate  religious  teachers,  is  evident.  Zion,  or 
the  Church,  was  built  up  with  blood,  and  Jerusalem  with 
iniquity.  The  religious  teachings  were  utterly  depraved. 
Yet  great  apparent  devotion  to  the  interests  of  Zion  was 
manifested,  and  loud  profei^sions  of  piety  were  abundant. 
While  the  heads  of  Zion  judged  for  reward,  and  the  priests 
thereof  taught  for  hire,  and  the  prophets  divined  for  money, 
they  yet  "  leaned  vpon  (he  Lord,  and  said  in  not  (he  Lord 
among  us."  While  abhorring  judgment  (or  justice)  and 
perverting  all  equity,  they  felt  so  secure  in  the  Divine  pro- 
tection that  they  said  '■'■  none  evil  can  come  upon  us"  These 
hypocrites  could  point  to  what  they  considered  certain  evi- 
dences of  the  Divine  presence  and  favor:  Is  not  the  Lord 
among  us  ?  Are  not  these  the  tokens  of  his  gracious  regard  ? 
Do  we  not  have  a  numerous  attendance  on  our  ministrations 
in  the  solemn  services  of  the  sanctuary  ?  Are  we  not  "  build- 
ing up  Zion,"  lengthening  her  cords  and  strengthening  her 
stakes?  Drawing  from  these  considerations  a  presumptuous 
confidence,  they  felt  safe  in  God,  at  the  very  moment  that  his 
heaviest  curse  was  impending  over  them. 

A  more  exact  description  than  this  of  the  leading  churches 
of  this  land  could  not  be  written  by  the  prophet  if  he  lived 
in  our  day,  and  was  an  eye-witness  of  current  events.  Let 
us  look  at  some  of  the  details  in  this  prophetic  picture.  The 
first  is,  ''  they  abhor  judgment  and  pervert  all  equity."  The 
pulpits  of  this  land  have  rung  and  are  now  ringing  with 
defenses  of  the  system  of  slavery  and  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Bill,  The  religious  press  is  teeming  with'similar  justifica- 
tions. Now  slavery  and  (he  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  are  the  most 
monstrous  "  perversions  of  all  equity  "  that  were  ever  framed 
into  law.  The  provisions  of  the  Fugitive  Bill  are  drawn  with 
an  eye  solely  to  the  establishment  of  injustice.  A  bribe  is 
paid  for  a  decision  against  natural  right,  and  evidence  is 
taken  as  sufficient  to  consign  a  man  to  the  endurance  of  life- 
long robbery,  which  would  not  establish  a  claim  of  property 
to  a  dog.  Now,  if  the  defense  of  this  iniquity  by  the  Church 
and  clergy  is  not  overwhelming  evidence  of  an  "  abhorrence 
of  justice,"  and  a  desire  to  "  pervert  all  equity,"  there  never 
can  be  any  evidence  of  the  existence  of  such  disposition. 

Another  particular  ia  the  description  is,  '•  they  build  up 
Zion  with  blood  and  Jerusalem  with  iniquity."  As  a  striking 
exempliiication  of  this  process  take  one  or  two  authentic 
advertisements.     The  iSacanuah  Georgian  of  the  3rd  of  March, 


282  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS    OF 

1845,  contains  the  notice  of  a  public  sale.     After  describing 
the  plantation  the  advertisement  adds  : 

"Also,  at  the  same  time  and  place  the  following  negro 
slaves,  to-wit :  'Charles,  Peggy,  Antoinette,  Davy,  September, 
Maria,  Jenny  and  Isaac,  levied  on  as  the  property  of  Henry 
T.  Hall,  to  satisfy  a  mortgage,  issued  out  of  the  Mcintosh 
Superior  Court,  in  favor  of  the  Board  of  Dircrtors  of  the 
Theological  Seminar)/  of  the  S)/nod  of  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia,  against  said  Henri/  T.  Ilall.     Conditions  cash. 

"  '  C.  O'Neal,  Deputy  Sheriff,  S.  C  " 

The  Charleston  Courier^  of  February  12th,  1835,  contains 
the  following : 

"FIELD  NEGROES,  %   T honias  Gadsden. 

"  On  Tuesday,  the  17th  instant,  will  be  sold  at  the  North 
of  the  Exchange,  at  ten  o'clock,  a  prime  gang  of  ten  negroes, 
accustomed  to  the  culture  of  cotton  and  provisions,  belonging 
to  the  Independent  Ciiurch  in  Christ's  C hurch  Parish.'' 

The  next  notice  of  a  bequest  of  negroes  for  the  benefit  of 
the  heathen  is  from  a  Savannah  (Ga.)  paper : 

"  Bryan  Su])erior  Court. 

"  Between  John  J.  Maxwell  and  others.  Exec- "] 
utors  of  Ann  Pray,  complainants,  and   Mary  (    t„  p^  , 
Sleigh   and    others.    Devisees   and    Legatees,  |^     '       ^ 
under  the  will  of  Ann  Pray,  defendants.  j 

"  A  bill  having  been  filed  for  the  distribution  of  the  estate 
of  the  Testatrix,  Ann  Pray,  and  it  appearing  that  among 
other  legacies  in  her  will,  is  the  following,  viz. :  a  legacy  of 
one-fourth  of  certain  negro  slaves  to  the  American  Board  of 
Commissioners  for  domestic  missions  for  the  purpose  of  sending 
the  gospel  to  the  heathen,  and  particularly  to  the  Indians  on  this 
continent.  It  is  on  motion  of  the  solicitors  of  the  complain- 
ants ordered  that  all  persons  claiming  the  said  legacy,  do 
appear  and  answer  the  bill  of  the  complainants  within  four 
months  from  this  day.  And  it  is  ordered  tluit  this  order  be 
published  in  a  public  gazette  of  the  city  of  Savannah,  and  in 
one  of  the  gazettes  of  Philadelphia  once  a  month  for  four 
months. 

"  Extract  from  the  minutes,  December  2nd,  1832. 

"  John  Smith,  c.  s.  c.  b.  c." 

These  advertisements  arc  mere  specimens  of  multitudes  of 
others  of  similar  chai'acter,  and  serve  both  as  indications  and 
illustrations  of  a  general  practice.     Human  beings  are  bought 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  283 

and  sold,  held  and  bequeathed,  for  the  benefit  of  theological 
seminaries,  the  support  of  preachers,  and  the  sending  of 
missionaries  to  the  heathen.  The  wages  paid  for  the  labor, 
and  the  price  paid  for  the  bodies  of  slaves,  is  both  literally 
and  figuratively,  the  price  of  blood.  This  price  of  blood  the 
leading  denominations  of  the  American  church  take  and 
apply  to  the  support  of  all  the  various  means  employed  for 
building  up  the  Cimrch  at  home  and  extending  it  abroad.  If 
this  is  not  ^'huiiJing  tip  Zion  loifh  blood,"  then  how  and  where 
can  the  world  furnish  an  example  of  such  spiritual  masonry? 
Yet  do  the  sanguinary  builders  of  this  structure  of  blood  put 
forth,  as  in  the  days  of  iMicah,  abundance  of  pious  pretenses. 
They  say  with  their  ancient  prototypes,  "  Is  not  the  Lord 
among  us  f  "  Look  at  our  revivals  of  religion,  our  extended 
missionary  operations,  our  numerous  theological  seminaries, 
our  presses,  and  pious  ministers  and  devoted  people.  Then 
elated  with  the  survey  of  their  extended  boundaries,  flowing 
wealth  and  multitudinous  adherents,  they  triumphantly  ex- 
claim with  them  of  old,  "  none  evil  can  come  upon  us." 

To  the  churches  thus  cemented  together  by  the  blood  of 
the  tortured  slave,  comes  the  terrible  denunciation  which  the 
prophet  thunders  against  the  wicked  Church  of  his  day  : 

"  Therefore  shall  Zion  for  your  sake  be  ploughed  as  a  field,  and  Jeru- 
salem shall  become  heaps,  and  the  mountain  of  the  house  as  the  high 
places  of  the  forest.' 

Similar  to  this  is  the  language  of  Isaiah  : 

"  To  what  purpose  is  the  multitude  of  your  sacrifices  unto  me  ?  saitb 
the  Lord:  I  am  fall  of  the  burnt-oiferings  of  rams,  and  the  fat  of  fed 
beasts,  and  I  delight  not  in  the  blood  of  bullocks,  or  of  lambs,  or  of 
he  goats. 

"  When  ye  come  to  appear  before  me,  who  hath  requii'ed  this  at  your 
hand  to  tread  my  courts  ? 

"Bring  no  more  vain  oblations:  incense  is  an  abomination  unto  me; 
the  new  moons  and  sabbaths,  the  calling  of  assemblies,  I  can  not  away 
with,  it  is  iniquity,  even  the  solemn  meeting. 

"  Your  new  moons  and  your  appointed  feasts  my  soul  hateth ;  they 
are  a  trouble  unto  me  ;   I  am  weary  to  bear  them. 

"And  when  ye  spread  forth  your  hand  I  will  hide  mine  eyes  from 
you;  yea,  when  ye  make  many  prayers  I  will  not  hear:  your  hands 
are  full  of  blood.'' 


Decrease  op  Theological  Students. 

Recent  statistics  exhibit  the  fact  that  there  are  fewer  candi- 
dates   for    the   ministry  in    the  Protestant  churches  of  this 


284  LIFE   AND    WRITINGS    OF 

country  than  there  were  in  1840.  In  the  Theological  Semin- 
aries of  the  Congregationalists  and  Presbyterians  there  are 
fewer  by  seventy  than  ten  years  ago.  During  this  period  the 
population  of  the  country  has  increased  six  millions,  and  one 
million  of  square  miles  have  been  added  to  its  territories. 

These  facts  furnish  food  for  reflection  to  the  thoughtful. 
A  truly  evangelical  Protestant  ministry  is  one  main  hope  for 
our  country  and  the  world.  A  true  minister  of  Christ  is  the 
fast  friend  and  staunch  advocate  of  all  those  principles  of 
freedom,  justice  and  religion  which  form  the  only  solid  basis 
of  good  government,  and  which  alone  can  promote  the  high- 
est well-being  of  mankind  in  time  and  eternity.  The  true 
minister  is,  of  necessity,  the  friend  and  advocate  of  fieedom, 
for  his  great  business  is  to  preach  and  follow  Christ  and  his 
doctrines,  and  the  mission  of  Christ  is  to  "  proclaim  liberty  to 
the  captive  and  the  opening  of  the  prison  to  them  that  are 
bound."  He  is  necessarily,  also,  the  enemy  of  intemperance, 
because  he  is  ordained  to  warn  men  against  those  sins  which 
exclude  from  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  the  Bible  declares 
that  "  no  drunkard  hath  eternal  life  abiding  in  him."  He  is 
by  the  same  necessity  the  friend  of  peace  and  eueniy  of  war, 
because  his  master  is  the  Prince  of  Peace,  and  the  elements 
of  his  kingdom  are  ''righteousness,  -peace  and  joy  in  the 
Holy  Ghost."  He  is  also,  of  necessity,  the  friend  of  sound 
education,  for  the  mission  of  the  gospel  of  which  he  is  a  min- 
ister is  to  enlighten  the  world.  (J-od's  true  Church  and  min- 
isters are  the  light  of  the  world,  and  as  his  religion  is  dissem- 
inated through  the  earth,  so  will  the  cause  of  true  learning 
progress.  In  short,  the  true  minister  of  Christ  is  the  friend 
of  every  principle  and  every  measure  which  makes  men  wiser 
and  better,  and  the  opposer  of  every  principle  and  system 
which  has  the  opposite  tendency.  He  is  governed  by  a  spirit 
alike  the  opposite  of  that  of  the  despot  or  the  slave.  He  has 
no  desire  to  be  lord  over  God's  heritage  ;  but  feeling  his  own 
unworthiness,  and  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  genuine  humility, 
he  preaches  Christ  the  Lord,  and  himself  the  servant  of  the 
flock  for  Jesus'  sake.  At  the  same  time  he  has  none  of  that 
spirit  of  craven  fear  and  cringing  sycophancy  which  would 
induce  him  to  hold  back  one  jot  or  tittle  of  the  counsel  of  God, 
for  fear  of  oifending  his  people.  He  is  too  deeply  penetrated 
with  a  sense  of  his  high  and  solemn  obligations  to  his  own 
master,  to  stoop  to  court  the  favor  of  rich  and  haughty  sin- 
ners in  his  congregation.  Perfect  weakness  in  himself,  he  is 
strong  in   the   Lord  and   in   the  power  of  his  might.     An 


JIEV.   JOSEPH   CORboN.  286 

aliibassadov  of  God,  he  •will  be  true  to  hia  mission,  and  declare 
to  the  utmost  letter  the  -vrhole  of  God's  terms  of  reconcilia- 
tion with  men.  With  his  treasures  and  hopes  in  heaven,  he 
will  be  proof  alike  against  the  frowns  of  power  and  the 
seductions  of  flattery. 

Such  a  minister  will  never  perjure  his  soul  by  forginp;  lying 
apologies  for  crimes  like  slavery  and  drunkenness.  He  will 
sooner  perish  at  the  stake  in  the  fiercest  fires  of  persecution, 
than  throw  the  mantle  of  his  religion  around  the  criminals 
that  traffic  in  intoxicating  poisons  or  in  the  bodies  and  souls 
of  men.  Such  a  minister  will  never  fawn  on  the  great  or 
despise  the  lowly.  His  voice  will  be  raised  in  stern  rebuke  of 
the  titled  profligate,  and  in  words  of  consolation  to  the  sufi'er- 
ing  and  the  dumb. 

A  ministry  of  this  character  will  command  the  respect  of 
the  world,  however  much  it  may  be  opposed  and  hated.  It 
will  draw  to  it  the  gifted  and  the  pure,  and  embrace  the  best 
mind  and  deepest  piety  of  the  Church.  It  will  possess  ele- 
ments of  irresistible  attraction  to  the  strong-minded  and  the 
pure-hearted,  and  will,  by  the  force  and  operation  of  this 
principle  of  moral  attraction,  inevitably  perpetuate  itself. 

Is  this  the  character  of  the  Ataerican  clergy  as  a  class  at 
the  present  time?  Every  intelligent  man  knows  it  is  not. 
As  a  class  they  are  the  most  dangerous  foes  to  freedom  and 
the  strongest  body-guard  to  o])pression.  They  fawn  on  the 
vicious  great  and  refuse  to  plead  for  the  poor  and  the  dumb. 
They  are  the  conservators  of  many  of  the  errors  of  the  past, 
and  the  enemies  of  practical  reform.  They  are  the  friends  of 
education  only  so  far  as  it  consists  in  the  induction  of  the 
youthful  mind  into  the  cast-iron  thoughts  and  systems  of  for- 
mer generations.  They  have  expunged  from  their  creed  the 
idea  of  progress,  and  ignored  liviiic/  themes  in  the  discussions 
of  the  pulpit.  They  shrink  from  grappling  manfully  with 
the  great  social  and  moral  questions  of  the  day,  and  content 
themselves  with  teaching  the  forms  of  a  faith  from  which  the 
life  and  spirit  have  departed. 

What  is  the  consequence  of  all  this  ?  The  ministry  of  the 
present  day,  as  a  class,  have  lost  the  respect  of  the  world, 
The  wicked  have  not  respect  enough  to  oppose  them,  and  the 
good  are  not  attracted  to  their  support  and  sympathy.  These 
facts,  if  we  are  not  greatly  mistaken,  account,  in  part  at  least, 
for  the  decrease  in  the  number  of  the  candidates  for  the  min- 
istry.  The  gifted  and  the  good  among  the  youth  find  the 
attractions  to  other  pursuits  stronger  than   the  profession  of 


LIFE   AND   WRITINag   OP 

the  clergy.  They  find  in  other  departments  freer  scope  for 
the  development  of  their  mental  energies,  and  a  wider  field 
for  the  exercise  of  Christian  benevolence.  Through  the  many 
reform  societies,  organized  to  do  the  work  of  the  Church,  the 
very  existence  of  which  is  a  burning  reproach  to  the  minis- 
try, they  devote  themselves  to  the  good  of  their  race.  To  the 
investigation  of  weighty  questions  of  science,  morals  and 
religion  they  devote  their  energies.  They  are  thus  throwing 
a  flood  of  light  over  the  laws  and  relations  of  mind  and  mat- 
ter, revealing  the  wondrous  wisdom  and  power  of  God  in  all 
his  works,  and  thus  showing  forth  his  glory.  They  are  thus 
preparing  the  materials  and  facilities  for  the  construction  of 
the  glorious  temple  of  the  Redeemer's  worship ;  and  these 
works,  so  full  of  promise  to  the  race,  are  often  pursued  under 
the  ban  of  the  clerical  profession.  Not  strange  is  it,  there- 
fore, that  the  respectability  and  the  nuttbers  of  the  ministry 
are  decreasing  together.  The  discussion  of  the  remedy  for 
this  state  of  things,  we  must  reserve  for  another  article. 


Trouble  in  the  Episcopal  Church. 

A  man  of  decided  note,  in  his  way,  is  Bishop  Doaiie,  of 
New  Jersey.  He  is  a  leader,  and  one  of  the  most  ultra  mem- 
bers of  the  High  Church,  Divine  right,  Puseyite  party  in  the 
Episcopal  Church.  He  delights  to  be  known  by  the  sounding 
title  "  His  Holiness  Lord  George,  Bishop  of  New  Jersey  ?  " 
Various  rumors  and  charges  against  the  moral  character  of 
Mr.  Doane  have  for  some  time  been  afloat.  He  is  charged 
openly  with  such  slight  peccadilloes  as  "  obtaining  money 
under  false  pretenses,"  "defrauding  his  hired  men,"  etc. 
'*  Wine  bills,  to  the  amount  of  ^1,000,"  contracted  by  the 
Bishop  and  unpaid  for,  are  also  talked  of.  These  rumors  have 
become  so  notorious  that  the  bishops  of  Maine,  Virginia  and 
Ohio  have  thought  it  their  duty  to  interfere.  On  the  repre- 
sentation of  four  laymen  of  New  Jersey,  these  bishops  have 
written  a  letter  to  Bishop  Doane,  in  which  they  declare  that 
"such  and  so  many  are  the  charges  against  him,  that  they  do 
not  feel  at  liberty"  to  let  the  matter  pass  without  an  investi- 
gation. They  wish  the  Bishop  to  request  an  investigation, 
and  declare  that  if  he  declines  doing  so,  they  will  feel  bound 
to  have  the  matter  inquired  into.  "  His  Holiness  Lord 
George  "  responds  wrathfully  and  indignantly  to  the  letter  of 


REV,   JOSEPH   GOllDON.  287 

the  three  Bishops.  He  and  his  party  are  firm  believers  in  the 
doctrine  of  an  "official  sanctity"  pertaining  to  an  ordained 
minister,  entirely  distinct  from  his  personal  character. 
Accordingly  Bishop  Doane,  like  his  illustrious  prototype,  a 
bishop  of  the  Church  of  England  who,  when  reproved  for 
swearing,  answered  that  he  "  swore  as  a  man,  not  as  a  bishop," 
holds  that  he  cheated  his  workmen  and  obtained  money  fraud- 
ulently as  a  man,  not  as  a  bishop.  He  opens  his  protest  in 
the  following  grandiloquent  style  : 

"  In  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Sou,  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  Amen.  The  undersigned,  George  Washington 
Doauc,  J).  D.,  L.  L.  D.,  by  Divine  permission  Bishop  of  the 
Diocese  of  New  Jersey,  humbly  ministering  before  God,  in 
the  twentieth  year  of  his  Episcopate,  in  the  name  of  His  cru- 
cified Son,  and  in  the  power  of  his  sanctifying  spirit;  and  not 
without  tokens  of  the  Heavenly  blessing  on  his  unfaithful 
and  unworthy  ministration  ;  makes  now,  as  in  the  immediate 
presence  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  adorable  and  ever  to  be  blessed, 
his  solemn  protest,  as  aggrieved  by  the  Right  Reverend  Wm. 
Meade,  IX  1).,  Bishop  of  the  Dioceseof  Virginia  ;  the  Right 
Reverend  George  Burgess,  D.  D.,  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of 
Maine ;  and  the  Right  Reverend  Charles  Pettit  Mcllvaine,  D. 
D.,  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  Ohio,  by  their  uncanoaical, 
nnckristian  and  inhuman  procedure  in  regard  to  him,  as  here- 
tofore set  forth  in  the  document  bearing  their  signatures.'' 

To  our  poor  comprehension  there  seems  to  be  a  decided 
spice  of  blasphemy  in  this  language  ;  but  not  being  versed  in 
the  mysteries  of  '"Apostolic  succession,"  "  official  sanctity," 
etc.,  we  would  not  venture  to  speak  with  much  confidence. 
Not  content  with  this  protest,  Bishop  Doaoe  proceeds  to  call 
a  special  convention,  not  to  sit  in  judgment  on  his  own  con- 
duct, but  on  that  of  his  brother  bishops.  As  this  conven- 
tion will  be  mainly  composed  of  the  partizans  and  creatures 
of  Bishop  Doane,  it  is  pretty  certain  that  they  will  clear  him 
and  condemn  his  accusers;  and  as  Bishop  D.  is  a  leader  in 
the  High  Church  party  {low  enough  is  this  high  churchism, 
one  would  think),  it  will  be  very  hard  to  convict  him.  The 
affair  may  bring  to  a  crisis  the  elements  of  antagonism  that 
have  long  been  at  work  in  the  Episcopal  Church.  Ultimate 
disunion  of  the  two  opposite  principles  and  parties  may  be 
the  issue.  We  note  these  things  as  items  of  news,  and  also 
as  affording  a  rather  poor  commentary  on  the  boasted  "  unity 
in  diversity  "  of  the  Episcopal  churches.  The  facts  are  also 
interesting  in    another  view.      Bishop  Doane  is  one  of  the 


S8S  LIFE   AND   WRlTtN(JS   Oi* 

» 

lower  law,  pro-slavery,  fugitive  slave  law  advocates.  He  ven- 
erates Daniel  Webster,  as  is  natural.  That  he  who  advocates 
the  stealing  of  women  and  children  should  obtain  money 
under  false  pretenses,  and  cheat  his  hired  laborers,  is  not  at 
all  strange.  Bishop  Doane  and  his  party  are  pointed  illus- 
trations of  the  description  of  the  American  clergy,  as  a  class, 
in  the  previous  article.  His  case  is  another  indication  of  a 
degree  of  corruption  in  the  popular  religion  of  this  country 
which  can  be  purified  by  nothing  but  a  moral  revolution. 

As  a  literary  curiosity,  we  insert  the  close  of  the  Bishop's 
reply  to  the  charges  of  the  accusing  bishops ; 

"And  these  are  the  four  persons,  and  such  the  charges, 
upon  whose  authority  three  bishops  in  the  Church  of  God, 
without  acquaintance  with  the  men  or  inquiry  as  to  their  alle- 
gation?, have  relied,  as  the  ground  of  criminal  proceedings 
against  their  peer.  Fearful,  indeed,  the  reckoning  they  will 
have  to  meet.  For  the  inroad  which  has  thus  been  made 
upon  the  sacred  sorrows  of  a  desolated  hearth  ;  for  the  inter- 
ruption of  the  daily  duties  of  an  office  which  adds  to  the  care 
of  a  Diocese,  the  care  of  a  parish,  and  the  care  of  two  insti- 
tutions, in  which  two  hundred  of  the  sons  and  daughters  of 
the  church  are  nurtured  ;  for  the  storm  which  now  must  burst 
upon  the  peace  and  quiet  of  the  church — -for  this  aggressiou 
on  the  Diocese  of  New  Jersey  —  for  this  invasion  of  the 
rights  of  its  convention  ;  for  this  injustice,  indignity,  and 
cruelty  toward  its  bishop;  for  the  whole  amount,  and  all  the 
shapes,  and  every  incident  and  consequence  of  this  enormous 
wrong —  the  undersigned  holds  as  responsible  the  Bishops  of 
Maine,  Virginia  and  Ohio  ;  accuses  them  before  Christendom, 
and  summons  them  in  all  solemnity  and  sorrow,  before  the 
judgment  seat  of  God." 


Catholicism  and  Civil  Liberty. 

Dr.  O'Connor,  the  Roman  Catholic  Bishop  of  Pittsburg, 
recently  delivered  a  lecture  on  this  subject.  This  address  is 
published  at  length  in  the  columns  of  the  PilMhurg  CathoUr. 
It  contains  many  queer  things.  The  Bishop  labors  hard  to 
prove  that  all  of  freedom  embodied  in  the  political  institu- 
tions of  this  couiltry,  is  owing  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 
The  attempted  proof  of  this  is  quite  novel.  He  tries  to  show 
that  the  common  law  of  England)  which  is  the  basis  of  our 


RET.   JOSEPH    GORDON.  289 

free  institutions,  is  of  Catiiolic  origin,  because  it  grew  up  in 
Catholic  times  !  The  same  logic  would  prove  the  Reformation 
of  Luther,  and  the  astronomical  discoveries  of  Gallileo  to  be 
due  to  that  church,  which  was  the  relentless  persecutor  of 
both.  The  common  law  of  England  originated  in  the  civil 
institutions  of  Alfred,  before  the  papacy  assumed  the  control 
of  the  temporal  kingdoms  of  the  earth. 

But  it  is  not  our  purpose  to  review  this  remarkable  pro- 
duction, but  simply  to  present  a  sample  or  two  of  its  style 
and  matter.  The  two  following  paragraphs  aiford  a  rare 
instance  of  the  coolness  with  which  Roman  Catholic  ecclesi- 
aslics  can  distort  the  facts  of  history  : 

"  Every  one  will  admit  the  importance  of  religion  for  the 
government  of  society,  since  all  know  if  it  were  withdrawn, 
the  mainspring  of  the  vast  machine  would  be  broken.  Con- 
stitutions would  be  but  as  chaff  before  the  wind.  Laws  will 
be  swept  away  wherever  a  sense  of  duty  and  the  force  of 
moral  obligation  are  not  embedded  deeply  in  the  bosom  of 
society.  This  truth  will  explain  the  origin  of  those  convul- 
sions which  we  have  lately  witnessed.  Men  have  succeeded 
in  plucking  from  the  hearts  of  the  multitude  a  love  of  religion 
— in  many  cases  even  a  religious  belief  was  banished.  But 
man  is  not  a  mere  machine.  Unless  his  actions  are  governed 
by  the  laws  of  God,  his  institutions  will  be  like  buildings 
erected  on  the  sand,  which  will  be  swept  away  by  the  torrent. 
We  have  seen  this  effected,  within  the  last  few  months  in 
France  by  the  hand  of  one  man,  and  such  will  be  the  fate  of 
all  governments  in  the  heart  of  whose  people  religion  is  not 
firmly  implanted. 

"  The  religious  training  necessary  for  this  is  imparted  with 
peculiar  efficacy  by  the  Catholic  Church.  She  does  not 
merely  announce  her  doctrines  and  her  precepts.  She  em- 
bodies them,  as  I  have  already  stated,  in  institutions  which 
bring  them  home  to  all  ages,  all  classes;  makes  them  sink 
deeply  into  our  very  nature,  and  thus,  at  trying  moments  as 
well  as  in  days  of  prosperity,  they  exercise  a  powerful  influ- 
ence on  the  mind  and  on  the  heart." 

France  contains  a  population  of  about  36,000,000.  About 
30,000,000,  or  five-sixths  of  the  whole  population  are  Roman 
Catholics.  From  the  days  of  Pepin  and  Charlemagne  down 
to  the  present  time,  France  has  been  one  of  the  firmest  sup- 
ports of  the  Roman  Hierarchy.  In  no  country  have  Pro- 
testants been  more  ruthlessly  persecuted  than  in  France.  The 
revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  and  the  slaughter  of  St. 


i90  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS   OF 

Bartholomew,  arc  familiar  passages  in  the  "  Catholic  chapter" 
of  the  history  of  France.  Charlemagne  was  crowned  Empe- 
ror of  the  West,  by  the  Pope,  as  the  reward  of  his  services  in 
sustaining  th(;  interests  of  the  latter.  The  bayonets  of  Louis 
Napoleon  are  now  the  only  prop  to  his  tottering  throne.  In 
no  country  has  the  education  of  the  people  been  more  fully 
under  the  control  of  the  fioman  Catholics  than  in  France. 
In  that  country,  therefore,  if  anywhere,  we  may  look  for  the 
legitimate  effects  of  that  system  of  religion  and  education. 
What  are  those  results?  According  to  Bishop  O'Connor's 
own  confession,  infidelity  controls  France,  and  the  people  are 
the  supple  tools  of  the  little  tyrant  who  now  rules  them. 
What  Catholicity  can  do  for  any  country,  where  it  is  sup- 
ported by  the  Government,  and  has  had  for  ages  the  almost 
entire  control  of  the  education  of  the  people,  it  has  done  for 
France.  The  very  socialism,  communism,  and  other  isms, 
which  are  the  professed  abhorrence  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
have  sprung  from  her  bosom  as  from  the  arms  of  their  nurs- 
ing mother.  The  "  Infallible  Church  "  has  there  had  the 
eompletest  scope  to  develop  what  it  can  do  for  the  political 
freedom,  the  social  morality,  and  the  religious  training  of 
mankind.  Behold  the  result  in  the  infidelity,  the  reeking 
licentiousness  of  the  people,  and  the  infamous  despotism  of 
Louis  Napoleon.  It  is  hard  to  tell  which  predominates,  the 
the  folly  or  effrontery  of  Mr.  O'Connor,  in  pointing  to  France 
as  an  example  of  the  want  of  the  lloman  Catholic  religion. 


Sectarian  kSELPisHNEss. 

We  know  of  nothing  on  earth  more  meanly  selfish  than  the 
attempt  to  use  instrumentalities  established  by  the  labors  of 
different  denominations  of  Christians,  to  promote  the  sectarian- 
isms of  one.  All  co-operation  of  different  sects  proceeds  on  the 
assumption  that  there  arc  certain  great  principles  which  they 
hold  in  common,  and  certain  important  objects  whicli  they 
are  mutually  desirous  to  accomplish.  It  is  always  understood 
that  the  object  of  combination  is  to  advance  these  common 
principles  and  objects,  and  that  all  the  funds  contributed,  and 
all  the  instrumentalities  established,  shall  be  honestly  devoted 
to  this  purpose.  It  is  likewise  either  tacitly  understood  or 
expressly  stipulated,  that  sectarian  peculiarities  shall  be  held 
in  abeyance,  in  so  far  as  respects  the  action  of  the  parties  in 
their  associated  capacity.     It  matters  not  that  one  sect  con- 


KEV.    JOSEPH    (.JOIlDOX.  2ltl 

tributed  more  to  tbe  funds  than  another,  or  that  it  has  a  larger 
number  of  luembers  concerned  in  the  management  of  the 
affairs  of  the  society.  It  only  adds  to  the  meanness  of  the 
thing  to  take  advantage  of  the  power  of  a  majority  to  pervert 
the  resources  of  the  common  society  to  sectarian  purposes. 
If  but  a  widow's  mite  has  been  contributed  by  any  one  party, 
it)»is  given  with  the  express  understanding  that  it  will  be  faith- 
fully devoted  to  the  common  cause.  To  use  it  for  another 
purpose,  however  praiseworthy  in  itself,  is  a  violation  of 
plighted  faith.  To  use  it  for  a  purpose  which  the  giver  does 
not  approve,  is  both  robbery  and  sacrilege,  as  it  is  taking  that 
which  was  consecrated  wholly  to  the  Lord  for  another  purpose 
which  the  giver  does  not  believe  to  be  well-pleasing  in  his 
sight.  From  this  it  follows  that  the  man  who  will  avail  him- 
self of  the  opportunity  afforded  by  a  particular  position,  to 
thus  pervert  the  agencies  established  for  the  propagation  of 
a  common  faith,  to  the  narrow  purpose  of  building  up  his 
own  sect,  is  capable  of  any  other  act  of  baseness  or  fraud. 
He  is  a  man  who  would  not  hesitate  to  rob  the  temple  of  the 
Lord  of  its  golden  vessels,  if  he  might  coin  them  into  money 
for  the  promotion  of  his  own  selfish  schemes. 

Yet  we  have  met  such  men  in  our  day,  and  unless  some  of 
the  larger  sects  of  the  country  slander  each  other,  they  are 
trying  to  perpetrate  this  very  baseness.  Some  of  the  most 
rabidly  sectarian  newspapers  that  we  know  of,  were  established 
and  have  been  sustained  by  the  contributions  of  various 
denominations  ;  some  at  least  of  which  would  have  rather 
thrown  their  offering  into  the  sea,  than  to  have  had  them  thus 
perverted.  If  we  may  believe  the  New  School  Presbyterians, 
and  the  Congregationalists,  each  party  is  trying  to  use  the 
Home  Missionary  Society  to  propagate  its  ecclesiastical  isms, 
rather  than  preach  the  truths  which  both  hold  in  common. 
And  indeed  we  know  of  no  instrumentality  for  extending  the 
Grospel,  established  by  the  mutual  efforts  of  different  denom- 
inations, in  regard  to  the  management  of  which  suspicions  of 
sectarian  unfairness  have  not  at  some  time  been  excited. 

It  may  be  said,  and  it  has  been  said,  that  although  the 
constitution  of  a  society  may  be  Catholic  in  its  character,  and 
may  invite  the  co-operation  of  various  sects,  yet  if  one  denom- 
ination gives  most  of  the  funds,  they  thereby  acquire  a  right 
to  use  those  funds  to  build  up  their  own  sect.  This  plea  would 
be  false,  if  every  cent  of  the  funds  were  given  by  one  sect. 
They  are  asked  and  obtained  for  a  specified  purpose,  and  it  is 
practicing  a  falsehood  to  ask  money  for  one  object  and  then 


292  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS  OF 

use  it  for  the  promotion  of  another.  It  is  assuming  tliat  the 
contributors  all  feel  more  desirous  to  extend  the  power  of 
their  sect,  than  to  preach  the  common  salvation — an  assump- 
tion which,  if  true,  stamps  the  character  of  the  sect  as  essen- 
tially anti-Christian,  but  which,  if  false,  involves  those  thus 
using  their  contributions  in  the  crime  of  deception,  and  of 
obtaining  money  under  false  pretenses.  If  any  portion  t>f 
the  funds,  even  the  smallest,  are  furnished  by  other  denomi- 
nations, then  the  meanness  and  wickedness  of  perverting  them 
to  sectarian  purposes  are  too  manifest  to  need  exposure. 

All  sects  profess  to  value  the  great  principles  of  Christianity 
which  they  hold  in  common,  far  higher  than  they  do  their 
peculiar  sectarian  principles.  The  gospel  was  "the  power  of 
God  unto  salvation,"  before  the  distinctions  of  Presbyterian, 
Methodist,  Episcopalian  or  Congregationalist  were  known  in 
the  Church.  The  gospel  will  survive  the  obliteration  of  the 
sectarian  lines  which  separate  these  various  branches  of  the 
Christian  host.  Hence,  the  man  who  values  his  sectarianisms 
more  highly  than  the  great  fundamental  doctrines  of  the 
Christian  system,  is  not  himself  a  Christian.  His  connection 
with  the  church  is  formed  for  the  purpose  of  promoting  some 
ambitious  or  lucrative  purpose  of  his  own,  and  not  for  the 
purpose  of  professing  Christ  before  men,  blessing  mankind, 
and  honoring  God.  Hence,  the  inliuence  of  such  men  is  the 
greatest  obstacle  in  the  way  of  harmonious  co-operation 
between  different  branches  of  the  Church.  They  are  usually 
men  ambitious  of  leadership  ;  and  having  put  on  a  profession 
of  Christianity  merely  as  a  cloak,  they  are  generally  unscru- 
pulous in  regard  to  the  means  they  use  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  their  ends.  And  as  their  great  object  is  their  own 
personal  honor  or  advantage,  they  will  ruin  the  common 
cause,  if  they  can  not  use  its  funds  and  friends  for  their  own 
purposes.  We  have  known  the  most  promising  schemes  of 
co-operation  between  various  branciies  of  the  Christian  Church, 
defeated  by  the  unscrupulous  ambition  of  such  men.  True 
Christians  are  usually  unsuspecting  and  very  forbearing. 
Hence  these  sectarian  schemers  have  the  greatest  security  and 
advantage  in  prosecuting  their  plans. 

The  remedy  for  this  evil  is  not  meekly  to  submit  to  the 
wrong,  and  palliate  and  excuse  the  conduct  of  the  wrong-doer. 
The  man  who  is  capable  of  such  a  sacrilegious  prostitution  of 
the  labors  and  offerings  of  simple-hearted  piety,  is  not  a  man 
to  appreciate  a  generous.  Christian  magnanimity  in  those 
whose  confidence  he  lias  abused.     This  will  only  encourage 


r.EV.  JOSEPH   GORDON.  293 

him  in  his  evil  course.  Such  men  will  feel  nothing  but  the 
indignant  scorn  and  reprobation  of  those  whom  they  seek  to 
use  as  their  tools.  Let  them  know  that  their  schemes  and 
their  character  are  understood ;  let  them  be  deprived  of  all 
control  of  the  agencies  which  they  seek  to  pervert,  and  they 
will  be  rendered  powerless  for  evil.  Then  such  a  high  and 
fervent  spirit  of  piety  in  the  Church  as  will  make  it  an 
uncomfortable  place  for  the  selfish  sectarian,  will  finally 
deliver  them  from  the  curse  of  his  presence. 


SPEAKiNa  Evil  of  Dignities. 

The  Apostles  Peter  and  Jude  mention  it  as  one  character- 
istic of  a  class  of  false  teachers  who  had  crept  into  the  Church 
in  their  day,  that  they  were  "  not  afraid  to  speak  evil  of  dig- 
nities." By  a  common  consent,  these  "dignities"  have  been 
supposed  to  be  civil  magistrates  or  the  magnates  of  the  Church. 
Hence  we  have  heard  this  text  gravely  quoted  to  prove  that  it 
was  wrong  to  call  Franklin  Pierce  by  his  right  name,  or  to 
characterize  as  they  deserve  pro-slavery  Drs.  of  Divinity. 
Nothing,  we  think,  is  more  incorrect  than  such  an  application 
of  the  passage.  This  is  one  of  those  errors  of  translation 
and  exposition  which  was  foisted  into  the  Bible  by  the  preju- 
dices of  the  translators  and  of  the  time  in  which  they  lived. 
The  divine  right  of  kings  was  standard  orthodoxy  in  politics 
and  religion  in  the  days  of  King  James,  when  our  present 
version  of  the  Bible  was  made.  Hence,  the  translators  were 
ever  ready  to  construe  passages  which  had  any  seeming  of  this 
doctrine  in  them,  in  accordance  with  this  prevailing  opinion ; 
and  commentators  of  that  era,  sharing  in  the  same  belief,  fol- 
lowed their  example,  and  were  themselves  followed  in  turn 
by  others,  without  critical  investigation.  Of  this  kind  of 
translation  and  exegesi;?  the  passage  in  question  furnishes  an 
example.  In  our  opinion  it  has  no  reference  to  magistrates 
in  the  State  or  to  dignitaries  in  the  Church — except  so  far  as 
these  office-bearers  are  types  of  Christ,  and  represent  his 
authority.  It  refers,  we  fully  believe,  primarily  to  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  in  the  dignity  and  glory  of  his  mediatorial 
reign.     We  present  a  few  reasons  for  this  belief: 

1.  In  the  first  place,  the  word  translated  dignities  does  not 
mean  magistrates,  so  far  as  we  know,  in  any  other  passage  of 
the   Soriptui-es.     The    Greek    word  is   doxa,  (in   the  plural 


294  LIFE    AND    WMTINaS    OF 

doxai)  signifying  g^ory.  It  is  the  word  most  frequently  used 
to  express  the  glory  of  God.  Thus,  Christ  is  called  the 
"brightness  of  the  Father's  glory" — doxas.  Again,  it  is 
said  that  he  for  the  suifering  of  death  was  crovrned  with  glory 
and  honor — the  same  word  in  the  Greek.  In  the  Gospel  of 
Matthew  it  is  expressly  applied  to  the  mediatorial  reign  of 
Christ.  The  request  of  James  and  John,  the  sons  of  Zebe- 
dee,  was  that  they  might  sit  the  one  on  his  right  hand  and 
the  other  on  his  left  in  his  glory — that  is,  in  his  kingdom, 
which  as  Mediator  he  should  set  up.  We  might  quote  a  mul- 
titude of  passages  where  the  word  is  used  in  the  same  sense. 
But  we  know  of  no  instance,  unless  it  is  the  one  in  question, 
in  which  it  is  applied  to  civil  magistrates  or  ecclesiastical 
functionaries. 

2.  Again,  the  word  translated  to  "  speak  evil,"  signifies 
more  properly  to  blaspheme.  It  is  indeed  the  same  word 
vpith  the  English,  blaspheme,  with  only  a  Greek  termination. 
Hence  the  literal  translation  of  the  passage  is  ''  blaspheming 
glorious  ones;"  and  as  the  plural  is  sometimes  applied  to 
God  to  denote  his  dignity,  it  might  without  any  violence  to 
the  laws  of  language,  be  rendered  "blaspheming  the  Glorious 
One."  But  blasphemy  can  only  be  against  God.  Men  may 
slander  and  revile  each  other,  but  can  not  be  properly  said 
to  blaspheme  each  other. 

.  3.  In  the  third  place,  the  Apostle  Jude,  speaking  of  the 
doom  of  these  false  teachers,  declares  that  "  the  Lord  cometh 
with  ten  thousand  of  his  saints  to  execute  judgment  upon 
all,  and  to  convince  all  that  are  ungodly  among  them  of  all 
their  ungodly  deeds  which  they  have  ungodly  committed,  and 
of  all  their  hard  spccxhrs^  which  ungodly  sinners  have  ajjokcn 
against  him."  The  Apostle  is  in  this  passage  giving  an 
epitome  of  the  crimes  which  he  had  detailed  more  at  length 
in  the  previous  part  of  his  epistle.  Hence  the  conclusion  is 
clear  and  convincing,  that  the  hard  S2)crch''s  against  Christ 
were  the  very  same  as  the  speaking  evil  of  dignities,  to  which 
he  had  referred  before.  They  '-blasphemed  the  Glorious 
One,"  that  is,  "uttered  hard  speeches  against  Christ." 

We  have  other  reasons  in  favor  of  this  exposition  of  the 
passage,  but  have  not  now  time  to  adduce  them.  We  have 
only  space,  in  conclusion,  for  a  remark  or  two  in  regai'd  to 
the  common  understanding  of  the  text.  We  do  not  deny 
that  civil  magistrates  and  office-bearers  in  the  Church,  in  so 
far  as  they  execute  the  duties  of  their  offices  in  accordance 
with  the  will  of  Christ,  are  to  be  held  in  high  honor.     Civil 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  295 

and  ecclesiastical  governments  are  Christ's  ordinance,  and  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  rulers  are  his  ministers.  So  far  as  they 
conform  to  his  law,  they  represent  his  authority,  and  to  speak 
evil  of  them  is  -to  blaspheme  Christ.  But  that  miy  form  of 
civil  government,  no  matter  how  it  is  administered,  is  Christ's 
ordinance,  is  a  prevalent  but  pestilent  heresy.  To  affirm 
that  Franklin  Pierce  is  Christ's  minister,  in  any  other  sense 
than  the  Devil  and  all  wicked  men  are  his  ministers,  is  to 
our  mind  a  most  monstrous  and  impious  proposition.  He 
possesses  not  a  single  qualification  which  God  requires  of  the 
civil  ruler.  The  Government  under  his  administration  con- 
travenes and  traiuples  down  God's  law  in  every  important  act. 
God's  civil  ruler  is  a  terror  to  evil-doers,  and  a  praise  to 
them  that  do  well.  Franklin  Pierce,  so  far  as  he  has  the 
power,  is  a  terror  to  well  doers,  and  a  praise  to  them  that  do 
evil.  To  crush  the  poor,  to  burn  defenseless  villages  and 
render  hundreds  of  women  and  children  homeless,  to  break 
down  the  barriers,  that  the  overflowing  scourge  of  slavery 
might  pass  over  vast  territories  of  free  soil,  are  the  important 
and  characteristic  acts  of  his  administration.  The  idea  that 
God  Almighty  regards  the  man  and  his  government  with  any 
other  feelings  than  those  of  intense  loathing  and  profoundest 
contempt,  is  to  our  mind  horribly  blasphemous.  And  we 
know  not  by  what  authority  we  arc  required  to  express  rev- 
erence for  that  which  God  abhors. 

The  same  is  true  of  corrupt  ecclesiastic  rulers.  Jesus 
Christ  certainly  did  not  commit  the  sin  of  "  speaking  evil  of 
dignities,"  when  he  denounced  such  as  serpents  and  vipers. 
According  to  the  prevalent  notion  of  our  times,  this  language 
was  very  wroiig  and  irreverent.  But  he  was  holy  and  harm- 
less, neither  was  guile  found  in  his  mouth.  The  Bible  every- 
where teaches  that  it  is  a  duty  to  call  things  by  their  right 
names ;  and  when  a  ruler  in  Chui-ch  or  State  is  base  and 
mean  and  cruel,  in  his  public  acts,  it  is  right  to  say  so,  and 
to  hold  him  up  to  the  scorn  of  all  the  good.  When  we  come 
to  entertain  correct  views  of  the  character  of  God's  rulers  in 
Church  and  State,  and  to  have  proper  ideas  of  the  true  func- 
tions of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  government,  we  will  not  blas- 
pheme these  Divine  ordinances  by  supposing  that  they  are 
found  in  our  covenant-breaking  President,  in  our  slave -trad- 
ing Government,  or  in  any  of  the  corrupt  pro-slavery  ecclesi- 
astical organizations  of  the  land. 


296  LIFE   AND   WRITINGS    OF 


The  New  Pro-slavery  Church. 

By  the  proceedings  we  published  last  week,  our  readers  will 
have  learned  that  the  Southern  seceders  from  the  N.  S.  Pres- 
byterian Church,  have  perfected  their  schism  by  giving  it 
organic  form.  The  salient  point  of  this  whole  affair  is  that 
the  new  church  has  really  and  avowedly  but  one  distinctive 
principle,  and  that  is,  the  sanctity  of  American  slavery.  The 
seceders  allege  no  other  ground  of  difference  with  their  breth- 
ren from  whom  they  have  separated.  They  profess  to  agree 
with  them  on  all  points  of  Christian  doctrine,  and  church 
order.  The  sole  offense  laid  to  the  charge  of  their  former 
associates  is,  that  they  will  not  recognize  slavery  as  approv- 
ingly ordained  of  God,  and  as  in  all  circumstances  a  holy 
and  desirable  institution.  We  say  in  all  circumstances, 
because  the  N.  S.  General  Assembly  have  always  admitted 
that  in  some  circumstances  slavery  is  innocent.  In  the  Detroit 
resolutions  they  specify  three  circumstances  which,  in  their 
judgment,  justify  the  holding  of  men  as  property  by  the  mem- 
bers of  the  church,  and  their  last  Assembly  enacted  nothing 
inconsistent  with  this.  But  because  they  hold  that  slavery, 
under  other  circumstances,  is  evil.  Dr.  Ross  and  his  schismat- 
ical  adherents,  have  withdrawn,  and  organized  what  they  call 
a  church,  on  the  ground  that  slavery  is  always  and  only  good, 
and  shall  enjoy  the  fullest  and  most  undisturbed  fellowship 
and  sanction.  Slavery  is  therefore  their  corner-stone,  their 
sure  foundation,  their  bond  of  union.  The  right  of  the 
master  to  buy,  sell,  work,  scourge,  and  kill  his  fellow-men, 
to  separate  them  from  wives  and  children,  parents,  brothers, 
and  sisters,  is  the  sole  right,  for  the  maintenance  of  which 
the  new  organization  has  been  formed. 

It  is  difficult  to  find  words  to  adequately  characterize  the 
moral  enormity  of  this  whole  proceeding.  Slavery,  in  the 
abstract,  and  in  the  concrete,  and  under  all  circumstances,  is 
a  crime  that  stands  alone  in  unapproachable  atrocity.  It  is 
literally  the- "  sura  of  all  villainies."  There  is  not  a  crime 
on  the  catalogue  of  human  guilt — sacrilege,  blasphemy,  idol- 
atry, murder,  incest,  adultery,  robbery,  rape — which  slavery 
does  not  license  ;  and  all  of  these  crimes  are  perpetrated  from 
time  to  time  by  masters  upon  their  slaves.  Some  of  them  are 
perpetrated  habitually,  from  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  others 
of  them  occasionally.  All  of  them  may  be  perpetrated  with 
perfect  impunity  by  masters  on  slaves,  at  any  time  and  at  all 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  297 

times.  Yet  here  we  have  a  convention  of  professed  ministers 
and  members  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  his  name,  and  ostensibly  by 
his  authority,  separating  from  those  with  whom  they  have 
long  associated,  on  the  sole  ground  that  this  atrocious  system 
shall  not  be  discussed,  and  shall  not  be  condemned.  And 
after  separation  they  proceed  to  form  an  organization,  and 
call  it  a  church,  on  the  avowed  principle  that  God  sanctions 
this  concentration  and  embodiment  of  all  conceivable  guilt 
and  infamy. 

And  these  men  have  the  terrible  effrontery  and  blasphemy 
to  call  themselves  Christians,  and  Christian  ministers !  Chris- 
tians indeed !  What  possible  point  of  affinity  can  be  traced 
between  them  and  the  meek  and  holy  Jesus?  Behold  that 
Divine  Saviour,  as  seated  on  the  mountain  side,  with  his  mild 
•eye  all  burdened  with  the  weight  of  human  sympathy,  he 
proclaims,  "  Blessed  are  the  merciful,  for  they  shall  obtain 
mercy."  "  Therefore  all  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that 
men  should  do  to  you  do  ye  also  to  them,  for  this  is  the  law 
and  the  prophets."  Behold  him  again  in  the  synagogue  with 
the  book  of  the  law  open  before  him,  proclaiming,  "  The 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because  he  hath  anointed  me 
to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor,  he  hath  sent  me  to  heal  the 
broken-hearted,  to  preach  deliverance  to  the  captives,  and 
recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that 
are  bruised."  The  very  soul  of  love  and  pity  for  the  poor 
and  oppressed  breathes  in  his  words  and  acts.  "All  bore 
him  witness,"  we  are  told,  "and  wondered  at  the  gracious 
words  that  proceeded  out  of  his  mouth."  Their  souls  were 
!ost  in  delightful  wonder  at  the  more  than  human  love,  that, 
like  a  halo  of  heavenly  light,  pervaded  his  presence,  and 
breathed  around  him.  His  distinguishing  mark  of  his  own 
divinity  and  Messiahship,  was  his  love  for  the  poor,  and  his 
zeal  to  preach  to  them  the  gospel.  Wherever  a  human  heart 
lies  crushed  under  oppression,  there  yearns  his  bowels  of 
mercy.  Wherever  a  soul  toils  wearily  under  the  weioht  of 
sin  and  sorrow,  there  sounds  his  voice  of  love,  biddino-  the 
weary  and  heavy  laden  come  to  him  and  be  at  rest. 

Turn  we  now  to  the  other  side  of  the  picture.  In  the  city 
of  Richmond,  where  day  by  day  the  hammer  of  the  auctioneer 
falls  heavily  on  the  crushed  and  broken  hearts  of  the  scat- 
tered and  peeled  poor  ones  of  this  land,  assembles  a  convoca- 
tion of  the  nominal  disciples  of  this  blessed  and  compassionate 
Saviour.  Do  they,  like  him,  feel  that  their  mission  is  to 
"  preach  deliverance  to  the  captives,  and  the  opening  of  the 


2&S  LIFE   AND   TTRlTtNGS   Ui' 

prison  to  the  bound  ?  "  Nay  verily.  Their  open  and  avowe<^^ 
and  only  object  is,  to  perpetuate  the  captivity,  and  bar  mor*? 
securely  the  prison  doors  of  tlis  oppressed.  Under  the  shadow 
of  the  lofty  temple  where  they  meet,  the  Saviour,  in  the  per- 
son of  some  of  his  poor,,  heart-broken  disciples,  lies  chained 
and  bruised  in  the  loathsoJiie  slave-dsn.  These  professed 
embassadors  of  that  very  Saviour,  meet  fo?  the  sole  purpose 
of  organizing  a  nominal  church,  in  which  those  who  buy,  and 
sell,  and  chain,  and  lacerate  Jesus  Christ,  may  be  fellow- 
shiped  as  good  Christian  brethren.  In  thait  fetid  »lave-penf 
lies  the  wife  and  mother.  She  has  been  ruthlessly  parted 
forever  froiM  her  husband,  and  from  her  arms  has  been  cruellj 
torn  the  babe,  over  whose  little  form  her  heart  yearns  with  all 
the  deathless  love  that  the  mother  Only  knows.  As  she  lies 
there  in  chains,  memory  brings  back  the  image  of  the  little 
one.  She  sees  the  sweet  smile  upon  its  innocent  face.  She 
feels  its  warm  breath,  and  the  pressure  of  the  dimpled  hand 
upon  her  bosom  ;  and  then,  as  she  recalls  the  dreadful  truth 
that  she  will  see  it  no  more  in  this  world,  she  sobs  as  if  he? 
very  heart-strings  would  burst  asunder.  And  there,  almost 
within  hearing  of  her  wail,  those  professed  ministers  of  the 
loving  Jesus  are  ordaining  that  the  fiend  in  the  ahape  of  man", 
who  inflicted  all  this  terrible  weight  of  woe,  does  nothing 
whatever  inconsistent  with  the  character  of  the  Christian  I 
And  these  men  preach,  &nd  pray,  and  talk  pious  t-ant,  and 
then,  like  the  adulterous  woman,  wipe  their  motjths  and  say, 
"We  have  done  no  wickedness." 

Let  these  men  iill  up  their  cup  of  inijpiity,  and,  by  al'1 
means,  let  them  be  sonsistent,  and  open  wide  the  doors  of  th© 
sanctuary  they  are  founding.  Let  them  send  one  delegation 
to  the  leprous  saints  of  the  Salt  Lake  Valley,  another  to  th© 
seething  brothels  of  the  Five  Points  of  New  York,  and  a 
third  to  the  Thugs  of  Indiai,  bidding  the  Mormon  adultcrei*, 
the  New  York  prostitute,  and  the  Indian  assassin  come  tc 
their  fold,  and  aid  them  in  celebrating  this  marriage  of  death 
and  hell.  We  can  conceive  of  but  one  reason  why  they  might 
not  thus  greatly  increase  their  somewhat  meager  number,  and 
that  is,  that  the  Mormon,  the  prostitute,  and  the  Thug,  might 
spurn  the  invitsiition,  and  resent  as  an  insult  the  attempt  to 
place  them  on  a  level  with  Dr.  Ross  and  his  adherents.  W« 
can  hardly  say  that  they  would  not  have  just  cause  so  to  do. 


REV.  JOSEPH   GORCOrf.  299 


Movements  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

The  appointtaent  of  John  Hughes  to  the  rank  of  Arch-* 
bishop  of  New  York,  and  the  delivery  of  a  lecture  by  that 
high  functionary,  soon  after.  On  the  Decline  of  Protestant- 
ism, are  facts  with  which  our  readers  are  already  acquainted. 
Nearly  cotemporaneously  with  these  events,  the  Pope  of  Rome 
{^Pio  Nonri)  issued  a  bull,  appointing  an  English  Archbishop, 
and  dividing  the  country  into  twelve  dioceses,  and  appointing 
bishops  to  several  of  them,  accompanied  with  a  promise  of  a 
full  supply.  This  was  done  without  respect  to,  or  leave  of 
the  English  Hierarchy,  and  the  Queen,  the  Head  of  the 
Church,  "by  the  grace  of  God,  defender  of  the  faith,"  etc. 
These  several  movements  of  "  His  Holiness"  have  severally 
excited  quite  a  commotion,  both  in  this  country  and  in  Eng- 
land— much  greater  in  the  latter  country  than  in  this,  how- 
ever. The  excitement  in  this  country  exhibits  itself  in 
lectures,  sermons,  newspaper  comments,  etc.  In  England 
not  only  these  weapons  are  used,  but  meetings  are  being  held 
through  the  kingdom,  resolutiohs  and  addresses  are  adopted, 
invoking  the  interference  of  the  Queen  and  Parliament,  to 
arrest  the  threatened  subjugation  of  the  country  to  the  See  of 
Rome. 

We  do  not  apprehend  serious  danger  to  the  Protestant 
cause,  from  these  or  any  other  popish  demonstrations.  What- 
ever injury  may  result  from  them  will  be  owing,  not  to  the 
inherent  strength  of  the  papacy,  but  to  the  inconsistencies*, 
and  consequent  weakness  of  some  of  the  leading  sects  of 
Protestants.  It  is  the  leaven  of  popery  working  in  the 
Protestant  churches,  not  its  outward  assaults,  that  endangers 
the  citadel  of  truth.  The  most  prominent  and  violent  oppo- 
sers  of  the  recent  pretensions  of  the  Papal  See,  are  the  Pusey^ 
ites,  of  England,  and  the  pro^slavery  Protestants  of  the 
United  States^ — the  very  sects  that  embody  most  of  the  errors 
of  popery.  The  proclivity  of  the  first  of  these  toward  the 
embrace  of  "  Holy  Mother  "  is  a  matter  of  notoriety  through- 
out Christendom.  Hence  their  opposition  to  the  pretensions 
of  the  papal  bull  is  not  founded  on  religious  convictions — not 
the  offspring  of  an  honest,  conscientious  persuasion  of  the 
errors  and  corruptions  of  the  Catholic  Church.  They  have 
embraced  and  propagated  some  of  the  most  dangerous  and 
wicked  dogmas  of  the  Vatican.  That  the  Bishop  of  London, 
"Pepe  Henry  of  Exetor  "  (as  the  bishop  of  tliat  diocese  is 


800  LIFE  AND   WRttlKaS    OF 

called)j  &h(i  other  Puseyite  bishops  and  ministers  are  inflii- 
eneed  by  deep  religious  sentiment  of  opposition  to  the  doc- 
trinal errors,  or  practical  corruptions  of  the  papacy,  is  probably 
hot  suspected  by  themselves  or  any  of  their  followers.  Passions 
of  another  sort  are  the  cause  of  their  vehement  demonstrations 
of  hostility  to  the  papal  bull.  That  they,  by  the  grace  of 
God,  and  laws  of  the  realm  of  Englahd,  the  Lords  spiritual 
of  the  Church,  and  Lords  temporal,  moreover,  occupying  seats 
in  Parliament  and  other  worldly  perquisites,  should  be  coolly 
thrust  aside  by  a  proclamation  from  the  Vatican,  to  make  way 
for  others  sent  over  from  the  banks  of  the  Tiber  to  fill  their 
places,  rouses  all  the  pride  of  place  and  power,  for  which  the 
clergy  of  established  chu.rches  have  ever  been  distinguished. 
The  motives  for  their  fierce  opposition  are  palpable—^"  known 
and  read  of  all  men."  That  they  are  not  the  men  to  rebuke 
the  arrogance  of  Rome — ^that  their  testimony  is  powerless  to 
convict  and  convert  the  deluded  votaries  of  the  papacy — all 
can  see.     It  cavors  too  much  of  "  Satan  "  reproving  sin. 

Now,  the  same  thing  is  true  of  the  slaveholding,  and 
slavery-defending  churches  of  this  country.  They  have 
deliberately  adopted  some  of  the  very  worst  principles  of  the 
great  apostasy.  Some  of  these  are  openly  proclaimed,  others 
insensibly  insinuate  themselves  into  the  policy  of  the  churcheS) 
and,  to  an  extent  not  suspected  by  many,  control  and  influ- 
ence their  doings.  Let  us  specify  some  facts  in  proof  of  this 
point. 

1.  In  reference  to  a  portion  of  the  population  of  this  coun* 
,  try,  the  policy  of  withholding  the  Bible,  and  giving  them 
mere  oral  instruction  has  been  publicly  adopted,  and  openly 
proclaimed.  It  is  true  that  this  is  owing  in  part  to  the  fact, 
that  the  civil  laws  of  some  of  the  States  prohibit  the  slaves 
from  reading  the  Bible.  The  fault  of  the  Church  in  the 
matter  consists  in  permitting  her  members  to  uphold  these 
laws  in  their  capacity  of  citizens,  and  in  succumbing  and  giv- 
ing in  to  those  unholy  enactments,  which,  in  so  many  words, 
nullify  God's  express  command  to  "  search  the  Scriptures." 
By  a  silent  acquiescence  in  such  laws,  individuals  and 
churches  consent  to  the  wrong.  But  in  many  cases,  churchea 
have  openly  proclaimed  this  as  their  settled  policy,  in  regard 
to  the  religious  instruction  of  slaves.  The  proof  of  this 
assertion  has  been  repeatedly  published  in  our  columns. 
While  launching  anathemas  against  the  Pope  and  his  Cardin- 
als, for  withholding  the  written  word  from  their  followers, 
they  coolly  announce   that  "oral  instruction  "  ia  all,  under 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  301 

present  circumstances,  that  they  are  called  to  impart  to  the 
slave  population  of  the  United  States. 

2.  Again  :  the  Protestant  churches  of  this  country  have,  in 
many  cases,  virtually  adopted  the  popish  doctrine  of  indul- 
gences. Slavery  has  been  condemned  as  a  sin,  in  the  teach- 
ings of  nearly  all  the  sects  of  this  land,  yet  toleration  to  con- 
tinue in  the  practice  of  it  has  been  granted  to  the  same  extent, 
The  plea  for  this  is,  that  though  slavery  is  abstractly  wrongj 
yet  circumstances  justify  the  practice.  This  is,  to  all  intents 
and  purposes,  an  indulgence  to  commit  sin.  Circumstances, 
instead  of  the  Pope,  grant  the  license,  and  those  circumstan^ 
ces  are  the  creation  of  the  fancy  of  the  Church — they  have  no 
existence  in  fact.  We  state  simple  truth  when  we  say  that 
there  is  scarcely  a  social  crime  which  does  not  find  shelter 
in  the  Protestant  churches  of  this  country,  to  a  greater  or  less 
extent.  Slavery,  war,  intemperance,  fraud,  falsehood,  immoral 
voting,  connection  with  oath-bound,  secret  societies,  and  many 
other  practices,  at  war  with  the  very  plainest  precepts  of 
Christianity,  are  generally  no  bar  to  Christian  communion. 
Now,  the  refusal  to  exercise  discipline  for  these  evils,  is  the 
fullest  indulgence  to  those  engaged  in  their  practice.  Yet 
the  creeds  of  all  the  churches  in  which  these  things  are  toler- 
ated condemn  them  as  sinful.  Yet  for  sake  of  members,  of 
wealth  and  influence,  those  practising  them  are  freely  admit- 
ted to  the  communion  of  the  Church.  The  price  paid  for  the 
indulgence,  is  the  only  difference  between  those  of  Popery  and 
Protestantism — the  principle  is  precisely  the  same  in  both 
cases. 

3.  That  "the  end  justifies  the  means,"  is  another  doctrine 
(originating  with  the  Jesuits)  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  We 
find  traces  of  it  in  many  a  development  of  the  pro-slavery 
Protestantism  of  this  country.  The  facts  already  referred  to 
furnish  an  illustration.  The  end  proposed  by  many  a  church, 
is  to  build  itself  up  in  numbers,  wealth  and  power.  This  is 
a  holy  object,  provided  the  numbers  are  all  good  Christians, 
and  the  wealth  and  power  are  all  used  for  benevolent  pur- 
poses. But  among  the  means  used  for  this  purpose,  is  the 
toleration  of  those  wrongs  and  sins  which  we  have  named. 
That  this  is  really  the  motive,  is  evident  from  the  excuses  put 
forth  when  the  duty  of  casting  out  these  evils  is  pressed  upon 
the  church.  It  will  divide  the  church,  diminish  our  numbers, 
deprive  us  of  many  contributions  which  now  flow  into  our 
treasury,  etc.  These  are  the  standing  pleas  for  continued  fel- 
lowship, in  many  cases,  with  the  very  worst  of  sinners.     The 


802  LIFE   AND   WEITINGS   OF 

end  proposed,  the  prosperity  of  the  church — the  means,  the 
toleration  of  sin  in  its  communion — the  end  sanctifies  the 
means. 

In  many  other  things  the  working  of  the  leaven  of  popery 
is  seen  in  Protestant  churches.  The  prevalent  notion  of 
schism — that  it  consists  merely  in  leaving  an  external  church 
organization — is  purely  popish.  The  constant  appeals  made 
to  the  Fathers  and  their  traditions  —  to  the  principles  and 
practices  of  a  past  generation — instead  of  the  Bible,  is  of  the 
same  character.  Whether  or  not,  the  ministers  of  many 
Protestant  churches  exhibit  any  of  the  characteristics  of  the 
popish  priesthood,  our  readers  can  judge.  That  spiritual 
pride,  impatience  of  contradiction,  a  disposition  to  guard  most 
sedulously  all  the  prerogatives  of  their  class,  a  desire  to  hold 
and  exercise  all  possible  control  of  the  consciences  and  wills 
of  their  hearers,  and  to  suppress  free  inquiry  on  many  sub- 
jects, are,  to  a  considerable  extent,  found  in  the  ministry  of 
many  of  the  Protestant  churches,  would  not  perhaps  be  a  very 
hazardous  assertion.  That  these  things  are  marks  of  the 
popish  priesthood,  all  Protestants  believe. 

It  is  needless  to  pursue  these  remarks  further.  If  they  are 
true,  the  conclusion  is  inevitable,  that  the  popery  of  Protest- 
antism is  fraught  with  most  danger  to  the  cause  of  truth. 
This  is  our  painful  conviction.  In  this  country,  popery  finds 
its  appropriate  ally  in  the  institution  of  slavery.  They  are 
kindred  systems.  One  enslaves  the  mind,  the  other  both 
mind  and  body.  Both  deny  the  Bible  to  those  under  their 
control — both  discourage  free  inquiry,  and  "  love  darkness 
rather  than  light."  Popery  robs  its  victims;  slavery  does  the 
same.  By  its  penances,  masses  for  the  dead,  indulgences, 
etc.,  popery  extorts  money  without  rendering  an  equivalent; 
slavery  robs  men  of  all  their  earnings,  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren, and  their  own  souls  and  bodies.  The  same  evil  pas- 
sions, avarice,  and  the  lust  of  power  uphold  each.  The  Pope, 
"as  God,  sitteth  in  the  temple  of  Grod,  showing  himself  that 
he  is  God ;  "  slavery  makes  the  master  the  God  of  the  slave. 
The  slave's  right  to  worship  God,  to  read  the  Bible,  to  dis- 
charge all  the  duties  of  religion,  is  denied.  Thus  both  sys- 
tems, as  far  as  possible,  dethrone  Jehovah,  and  set  up  an  idol 
in  his  place.  Popery  denies  the  sacredness  of  the  marriage 
tie,  by  "forbidding  to  marry;"  slavery  annihilates  the  insti- 
tution of  marriage. 

This  analogy  might  be  run  out  to  the  end  of  the  chapter, 
but  enough  of  it  for  the  present.     That  a  church,  which  pro- 


SIEV.    JOSEPH    &ORDON.  BO'S 

elaims  slavery  "  no  bar  to  Christian  communion  " — which 
tak(3S  it  to  the  baptismal  font  and  the  coramuniou  table — is 
not  the  church  to  denomnce  popery,  or  to  convince  its  vota- 
ries of  error,  and  tiirn  them  ia  the  v/ays  of  truth,  is  the  inev- 
jlable  coaclasioR. 


Effete  Orthodoxy. 

The  Ghrktian  Press  quotes  Dr.  Chalmers  as  saying,  that 
^'The  orthodoxy  of  the  Church,  in  this  day,  has  become  effete, 
a  body  of  ceremonies  and  doctrinal  formulas,  from  which  the 
life  and  the  power  have  departed."  It  needs  not  the  high 
authority  of  ]3r.  Chalmers  to  aesure  every  intelligent  and  con- 
siderate man  that  this,  with  few  exceptions,  is  so.  Forms 
and  statements  of  doctrine  which  were  pregnant  with  mean- 
ing, and  instinct  with  life,  in  th^e  minds  of  the  reformers,  of 
the  men  composing  the  ¥/estminster  xissembly,  and  the  Withers 
of  the  orthodox  church  in  this  country,  have  become  to  the 
liien  of  the  present  generation  meaningless  and  lifeless  words- 
While  professing  to  hold  these  doctrines,  the  life  of  the 
cburches  is  a  daily  denial  of  their  truth.  Numerous  specifi- 
cations of  Ihis  fact  might  be  give« ;  we  name  but  one  or  two. 

In  the  Calvinistic  system  God  is  all  in  all,  so  far  as  "  domin- 
ion over  the  creatures "  is  concerned.  His  absolute  and 
undisputed  supremacy  in  all  things — the  affairs  of  the  Chui'ck 
and  of  the  State,  and  in  the  individual  life  of  every  intelli- 
gent being — is  one  of  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  this  sys- 
tem. But  by  none  more  than  the  professors  of  this  creed  has 
the  authority  of  acts  of  Congress,  and  other  legislative  enact- 
ments been  exalted  "  above  all  that  is  called  God,  or  that  is 
worshiped."  For  men  like  Drs.  Lord,  Boardman,  Spencer, 
etc.,  to  mouth  the  formulas  of  the  creed  of  John  Calvin  is  a 
heartless  mockery.  Had  they  lived  in  his  day  they  would 
have  been  among  the  most  servile  worshipers  of  the  Beast, 
and  the  most  devout  and  sanctimonious  persecutors  of  Cal- 
vinists.  This  language  does  them  no  injustice.  They  bow, 
at  this  day,  ia  obedience  to  the  ruling  powers  of  this  land, 
which  is  more  profligate  and  devilish  than  ever  was  the  harlot 
of  Home  in  her  worst  estate.  Surely  the  orthodoxy  of  these 
Eien  is  effete,  a  mere  formulary,  without  life  or  power. 

Another  foundation  article  in  the  orthodox  creed  is,  thafc 
tlie  doctriiie  of  gr^atuitous  justification  leads  iiecessarily  to 


804  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS  OF 

holiness  of  life — that  he  who  has  been  justified  will  also 
become  sanctified,  and  that  the  only  evidence  of  pardon  is 
entire  separation  from  all  known  sins.  That  consequently 
the  man  who  habitually  follows  any  sinful  practice  is  unfit  for 
the  communion  of  saints.  This  is  the  theory  :  what  is  the 
modern  practice?  We  wish  to  speak  of  this  in  all  candor, 
and  to  state  nothing  but  facts.  The  practice  of  the  orthodox 
churches  of  this  country  is  to  admit  pretty  much  every  body 
that  applies.  All  that  is  generally  required  of  a  professor  of 
religion  is  to  avoid  breaking  the  laws  of  the  land,  and  shun 
unpopular  sins.  If  he  keeps  out  of  the  clutches  of  civil  law 
he  is  pretty  safe  from  all  ecclesiastical  censure.  He  may  buy, 
sell,  whip,  and  rob  his  fellow-beings.  He  may  sell  intoxi- 
cating liquors,  vote  for  the  vilest  of  the  vile  for  civil  ofilce, 
and  commit  divers  other  similar  ofi"enses,  and  retain  his  full 
standing  in  any  of  the  large  branches  of  the  orthodox  or  het- 
erodox churches  of  this  country.  And  when  these  churches 
are  censured  for  these  things,  the  plea  is  put  in  (and  men 
like  Albert  Barnes  are  not  ashamed  to  use  it),  that  we  must 
not  expect  perfection  in  the  Church  on  earth,  and  that  if  the 
principle  is  once  admitted,  of  separating  from  a  church  because 
she  tolerates  one  sin,  it  will  bind  us  to  separate  on  account  of 
the  toleration  of  every  sin.  Surely  that  article  of  orthodoxy 
which  holds  sanctification  to  be  the  only  evidence  of  justifi- 
cation, is  effete — "  Thrice  dead,  plucked  up  by  the  roots." 

Waiving  other  illustrations  of  the  fact  in  the  case,  we  pass 
to  another  consideration.  This  effete  orthodoxy  is  the  triple 
chain  that  binds  men  with  the  strength  of  a  cable  to  their 
pro-slavery  churches.  It  is  the  for7n  of  sound  words  that  they 
regard  as  valuable  in  their  ecclesiastical  organizations.  De- 
luded by  their  leaders  into  the  belief  that  the  prime  articles  of 
their  creed  have  been  renounced  by  those  who  seek  to  free 
the  Church  from  her  connection  with  abounding  iniquity,  the 
masses  in  churches  are  held  by  their  attachment  to  these  for- 
mulas of  faith.  When  the  question  of  separation  from  the 
communion  of  slaveholders  and  other  criminals  is  presented, 
they  are  told  that  they  must  choose  between  a  renunciation  of 
their  theological  creed,  and  a  continuance  of  their  present 
church  connections.  The  orthodox  tenets  of  faith  laid  down 
in  the  confessions  of  past  generations  are  extolled  and  magni- 
fied by  the  men  who  practically  give  them  the  lie  every  day  of 
their  lives.  Whether  orthodoxy  in  the  minds  of  the  people 
e  real  and  living,  or  formal  and  dead,  does  not  materially 
ffect  its  power  to  hold  them  in  an  organization.     Men  cling 


REV.    JOSEPH    GORDON.  805 

to  forms  even  more  tenaciously  after  the  life  is  gone  than 
before.  When  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  religion  are  all 
that  any  people  possess,  they  can  the  less  aiford  to  lose  them. 

In  view  of  this  fact  the  mission  of  the  religious  reformatory 
spirit  now  abroad  is  immensely  increased  in  importance.  It 
is  not  only  to  destroy  those  particular  evils,  in  opposition  to 
"which  it  first  manifested  itself,  but  also  to  infuse  life  into  the 
dead  forms  of  faith  in  the  nominally  Christian  world.  So  far 
from  orthodox  Christians  being  required  to  renounce  their 
religious  belief  when  they  leave  the  large  and  corrupt  ecclesi- 
astical organizations  of  this  country,  the  exact  reverse  is  true. 
Only  the  men  who  hold  to  the  doctrine  of  no  religious  fellow- 
ship with  open  iniquity,  manifest  a  real  faith  in  the  orthodox 
tenet,  that  "every  sin  deserves  God's  wrath  and  curse,  both  in 
this  world,  and  in  the  world  to  come."  None  but  those  who 
hold  to  a  higher  law  than  acts  of  Congress  or  Parliament,  can 
really  indorse  the  Calvinistic  doctrine  of  God's  supremacy. 
So  with  other  points. 

In  the  light  of  this  subject  we  see  the  delusion  under 
which  honest  people  labor  when  they  cling  to  the  large  and 
corrupt  church  organizations  of  this  country,  through  devo- 
tion to  the  great  doctrines  of  the  orthodox  faith.  Tliey  em- 
brace the  body  from  which  the  vital  spark  is  fled. 


Covenanting. 

The  subject  of  public  covenanting,  at  the  present  time,  has 
been  brought  to  the  notice  of  our  readers  by  our  correspond- 
ents, in  this  and  last  week's  paper.  It  is  perfectly  evident, 
we  think,  that  if  those  denominations,  which  profess  to  believe 
in  the  divine  obligation  of  solemn,  public  covenanting,  at 
particular  times,  permit  the  present  occasion  to  pass  without 
entering  into  a  solemn  bond  to  obey  God  in  opposition  to  the 
wicked  demands  of  the  slave-power,  they  will  find  it  hard  to 
convince  the  world  that  their  testimony,  in  behalf  of  cove- 
nanting, is  anything  else  than  a  dead  letter.  But,  leaving 
controverted  points  on  this  subject  out  of  view,  we  confess  we 
should  love  to  see  the  friends  of  God  and  the  slave,  in  all 
Protestant  denominations,  unite  in  a  public  bond  at  the  pres- 
ent crisis.  This  bond  should  embrace  a  distinct  assertion  of 
the  supremacy  of  God's  law  over  all  mere  human  enactments, 
and  a  pledge  to  obey  the  former  and  disobey  the  latter,  in  all 


LIFE  AND  WRITINGS  OF 

cases  where  they  conflict  one  with  the  other.  As  iastances 
of  such  a  conflict,  it  should  specify  those  parts  of  the  fugitive 
skive  bill  which  command  the  citizens  to  join  the  posse  com- 
mitatiis  to  aid  in  recapturing  the  escaping  bond-man,  and 
those  parts  which  forbid  them  to  aid,  directly  or  indirectly,  in 
his  escape.  'IMie  bond  should  pledge  its  signers  to  use  all 
peaceful  means  in  opposing  the  execution  of  this  enactment, 
and  to  secure  its  repeal.  It  should  also  pledge  them  to  oppose 
by  all  right  means,  the  election  of  any  man  to  office  who  is 
not  opposed  to  slavery,  and  all  laws  made  to  sustain  it,  and 
who  is  not  known  to  possess  Bible  qualifications  for  the  office 
of  civil  ruler.  It  might  embrace  a  testimony  in  favor  of 
peace  and  in  opposition  to  preparations  for  war,  also  in  favor 
of  temperance,  and  in  opposition  to  all  laws  intended  to  give 
a  legal  sanction  to  the  selling  of  intoxicating  liquors.  Other 
things  might  be  added  in  difi'erent  localities,  as  might  be 
thought  best. 

It  would  be  a  sublime  spectacle  to  see  the  friends  of  God 
and  liberty,  all  over  this  land,  meeting  together  in  convenient 
places,  by  preconcerted  agreement,  on  the  same  day,  and  there 
solemnly  entering  into  covenant  with  Almighty  God,  to  choose 
his  service,  and  obey  him,  in  opposition  to  the  behests  of  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,  which  violate  his  laws.  If, 
forgetting  slight  denominational  differences,  members  of  all 
churches  could  thus  unite  in  publicly  svi^earing  allegiance  to 
him  who  alone  is  Lord  of  the  conscience,  it  would  be  a  trans- 
action to  go  down  in  history  with  the  leagues  of  the  Scotch 
Covenanters,  in  the  reign  of  the  Stuarts.  Such  a  movement 
would  arrest,  if  any  human  agencies  can,  the  downward  pro- 
gress of  this  nation.  The  signs  of  the  times  indicate  that  it 
is  rapidly  traveling  in  that  pathway  that  led  to  the  French 
Revolution.  The  law  of  God  has  been  openly  insulted  and 
cast  out  of  the  American  Senate.  The  man  who  asserted  its 
supremacy  was  obliged  to  make  a  virtual  retraction.  The 
licentious  and  the  drunken  occupy  the  high  places  of  power ; 
duelists  and  murderers  are  the  chosen  law-makers  of  this 
people.  It  is  but  within  a  week  that  two  of  them  tried  to 
hlosv  out  eacli  other's  brains  in  mortal  combat.  "  The  vile 
are  exalted,"  and  consequently  "  the  wicked  walk  on  every 
side."  Crime  is  increasing  with  a  rapidity  which  is  exciting 
the  attention  and  the  fears  of  many  who  are  called  to  execute 
the  laws.  If  these  things  are  not  arrested,  the  man  is  blind 
to  the  teachings  of  the  past,  and  the  signs  of  the  present,  who 
can  not  foresee  the  result. 


REV.   JOSEPH   GORDON.  307 

Patriotism,  then,  to  leave  higher  motives  out  of  view,  ought 
to  unite  the  friends  of  righteousness  at  this  crisis.  The  per- 
petuity of  this  Government,  as  a  government  of  justice  and 
liberty,  must  be  dear  to  all  friends  of  God  and  man.  The 
hopes  of  the  present  generation  and  their  posterity  are  deeply 
involved.  Yet  if  the  present  downward  tendency  is  not 
reversed,  the  ruin  of  this  nation  is  inevitable.  The  great  want 
of  the  friends  of  righteousness,  it  seems  to  us,  is  or<ranization 
■ — union.  As  a  means  of  promoting  this,  the  measure  of  pub- 
lic covenanting  of  which  we  speak,  is  worthy  of  serious  con- 
sideration. 


Modern  Infidelity. 

If  the  denial  of  i\ie  plenary  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  is 
infidelity,  then  there  are  no  doubt  infidels  among  the  advo- 
cates of  the  most  important  modern  reforms.  They  are  found 
chiefly  among  that  class  of  antislavery  men  who — for  want  of 
a  better  term — are  called  Garrisonians.  (We  use  the  term 
for  convenience,  not  by  way  of  reproach.)  That  all  who  hold 
Garrison's  views  of  the  United  States  Constitution,  and  of 
Christian  non  resistance,  deny  the  plenary  inspiration  of  the 
Bible,  is  not  true.  Whether  or  not  a  majority  of  them  do, 
we  do  not  know,  nor  is  it  important  we  should.  Neither  do 
we  know  what  is  Mr,  Garrison's  own  opinion  on  this  subject. 
That  some  of  the  most  prominent  of  the  class  to  which  we 
refer,  do  deny  the  doctrine  alluded  to  above,  is  certain.  They 
generally  make  no  secret  of  their  views.  For  whatever  is 
frank  and  open  in  the  avowal  of  their  sentiments,  they  deserve 
credit.  That  there  are,  besides  these,  many  Socialis/s,  and 
advocates  of  other  real  or  pretended  reforms,  who  repudiate 
the  doctrine  of  plenary  inspiration,  is  true.  The  influence 
of  these  varied  classes  is  extensive  and  powerful.  They  em- 
brace men  of  the  finest  intellect,  and  of  admitted  purity  of 
moral  life.  Many  of  them  are  also  men  of  great  natural 
kindness  and  benevolence  of  heart ;  and  many  of  them  exhibit 
a  philanthropy  and  expansive  benevolence,  which  ought  to 
put  to  the  blush  many,  of  orthodox  creed,  who  rail  most 
loudly  at  their  theoretical  infidelity.  That  the  views  of  these 
various  classes,  on  moral,  social,  and  political  questions,  are 
gaining  ground,  and  that  along  with  these  views  their  opinion 
of  the  Bible  is  spreading,  in  many  directions,  it  is  useless 
to  deny. 


808  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS  OF 

It  becomes,  then,  a  matter  of  vital  moment,  to  ascertain 
the  cause  and  the  remedy  of  this  species  of  unbelief.  As  the 
Bible  reveals  the  only  hope  for  man,  in  this  world  and  the 
next,  and  as  the  authority  of  the  Bible  rests  on  the  doctrine 
of  its  plenary  inspiration,  to  know  how  this  doctrine  may  be 
most  fully  established,  and  how  the  progress  of  the  opposite 
belief  may  be  most  effectually  arrested,  are  questions  which 
must  lie  near  the  heart  of  every  friend  of  God  and  man.  It 
is  obvious  to  all,  acquainted  in  any  degree  with  the  subject, 
that  the  former  modes  of  argumentation  are  insufficient.  It 
is  of  course  true,  that  the  way  of  proving  the  inspiration  of  the 
Bible  is  the  same  in  all  ages.  The  arguments  proving  the  gen- 
uineness and  authenticity  of  the  books  of  the  Bible,  the  proofs 
from  miracles  and  prophesy,  are  essentially  unchangeable. 
The  only  effect  of  time  on  these  various  proofs,  is  to  increase 
their  weight,  as  fuller  investigation  developes  the  accuracy 
and  purity  of  the  sacred  text,  and  as  prophesy  becomes  more 
and  more  completely  fulfilled.  The  force  of  these  evidences 
■will  only  increase  by  the  lapse  of  time. 

But  these,  to  the  mass  of  men,  are  not  the  most  accessible 
or  the  most  conclusive  proofs  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible, 
The  internal  evidences,  derived  from  the  purity,  holiness,  and 
consistency  of  the  teachings  of  the  Bible,  and  from  their  eflfects 
in  transforming  human  character,  and  controlling  human  con- 
duct, are  at  once  the  most  obvious  and  the  most  convincing. 
It  is  when  mankind  behold  the  Bible  working  an  entire  reno- 
vation of  the  whole  moral  and  intellectual  being  of  their 
fellow-men,  that  "  the  excellency  of  the  power  "  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures  is  seen  "to  be  of  God."  We  are  then  brought 
directly  to  what  we  conceive  the  principal  cause  of  the  infi- 
delity of  which  we  have  spoken,  and  consequently  to  its 
remedy.  It  is  the  failure  of  the  Church  to  exhibit  the  fruits 
of  this  radical  transformation,  and  the  exhibition  of  their 
very  opposite,  that  has  filled  the  land  with  unbelievers  in  the 
inspiration  of  the  Bible.  An  entire  change,  therefore,  in  the 
whole  spirit  and  practice  of  the  churches,  is  the  only  eflfeetual 
remedy.  It  will  not  do,  in  this  age,  for  the  Church,  or  her  min- 
isters, to  denounce  infidelity,  and  argue,  as  she  once  could,  from 
the  known  bad  character  of  infidels.  She  dare  not  challenge 
comparison  between  the  conduct  of  her  own  ministers  and  a 
members,  and  those  whom  she  denounces  as  unbelievers.  The 
advantage  is  here  against  the  Church  and  with  the  infidel. 
This  is  a  humiliating  confession,  but  truth  compels  it  to  be 
made,  and  beincr  true  it  is  useless  to  disguise  it.     Hence  the 


nEV.   JOSEPH   ftORDON.  309 

arguwent)  from  tlie  glorious  eflfects  of  receiving  the  Bible  as 
inspired,  is  lost  to  the  believers  of  that  doctrine,  and  turned 
against  them.  What  ought  to  have  been  their  mightiest 
weapon  of  defense,  is  the  most  fatal  implement  in  the  hands 
of  the  unbelievers. 

The  interpretation  of  the  Bible,  by  the  prominent  commen- 
tators of  the  country,  has  had  a  similar  effect  with  the  practice 
of  the  Church.  Instead  of  showing  (which  is  really  the 
truth),  that  its  teachings  harmonize  with,  and  really  inculcate 
all  true  reform,  the  interpreters  of  the  Bible  have  generally 
made  it,  on  these  subjects,  the  minister  cf  sin.  They  have 
distorted  its  holy  pages  into  a  seeming  justification  of  the 
most  atrocious  social  and  political  cri  xies.  Drunkenness, 
war,  slavery,  caste,  passive  obedience  t<)  government  as  of 
Divine  right,  have  fled  for  refuge  to  the  perverted  precepts 
of  the  Scriptures.  The  Church  has  frrnished,  and  now  fur- 
nishes, commentators  in  abundance,  who  forge  from  the 
armory  of  eternal  truth,  weapons  for  the  defense  of  all  these 
grievous  wrongs.  Now,  the  innate  sense  of  right,  which  God 
has  implanted  in  every  man's  soul,  revolts  at  these  practices. 
Hence  the  abhorrence  which  every  one,  except  those  who  for 
selfish  purposes  practice  or  defend  them,  feels  for  these  evils, 
is  easily  turned  against  the  Bible,  from  which  a  seeming  justi* 
fication  for  them  is  extorted.  The  enemy  of  slavery,  war,  etc., 
has  to  encounter  at  ever}'^  turn,  the  perverted  teachings  of  the 
Bible.  He  has  to  urge  his  appeals  against  the  prevailing 
exposition  of  that  book,  and  against  that  reverence  for  its 
authority  which  all  religious  persons  feel— a  reverence,  not 
founded  on  an  intelligent  understanding  of  the  teachings  of 
the  Bible,  but  on  the  prejudices  of  education  and  habit. 

Thus  meeting,  at  every  point  of  attack,  the  alleged  author- 
ity of  the  Bible — finding  a  garbled  text  ready  as  an  answer  to 
every  argument,  and  every  appeal  which  he  urges  in  behalf 
of  the  wronged  and  suffering  slave,  the  antislavery  man,  who 
has  not  been  deeply  imbued  with  the  teachings  and  spirit  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  almost  inevitably  conceives  a  strong 
disgust  against  them.  Now,  the  guilty  authors  of  his  infi- 
delity are  the  preachers  and  church-members,  who  so  obsti- 
nately thrust  forward  the  Bible  to  cover  and  excuse  the 
unspeakable  atrocities  of  slavery. 

The  temperance  man,  with  his  soul  alive  to  the  evils  of 
drunkenness,  goes  to  the  haunts  of  its  victims.  He  finds 
there  the  besotted  husband  and  father,  once  respectable  and 
virtuous,  now  a  hardened  and  imbruted  savage ;  the  crushed 


glO  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS   OF 

end  heart-broken  wife  and  mother,  the  hungry,  rafrgsd, 
squalid  children.  He  listens  to  the  oaths  and  blasphemies  of 
the  drunkard,  the  heartrending  sighs  of  the  suifering  wife, 
and  the  sobbings  of  the  worse  than  fatherless  children.  With 
his  heart  melted  by  the  sight  of  all  this  misery,  he  goes  into 
society  to  urge  an  appeal  for  the  rescue  of  the  victims.  The 
first  thing  he  meets  is  the  grog-seller,  who  has  been  the  guilty 
cause  of  all  this  woe,  a  respectable  member  of  a  professedly 
Christian  church.  Then  a  tippling  deacon,  or  a  hypoeriticul 
preacher,  who  has  "  stolen  the  livery  of  the  Court  of  Heaven 
to  serve  the  devil  in,"  "  quotes  Scripture  for  the  deed."  In 
answer  to  all  his  appeals  in  behalf  of  the  poor  victims  of  drunk- 
enness, garbled  extracts  of  holy  writ  are  thrust  in  his  face. 
That  he  should  curse  the  Scriptures,  and  their  professional 
expounders,  is  a  deplorable,  but  almost  inevitable  consequence. 
Then,  to  help  matters  along,  the  hypocrites  who  have  driven 
him  into  unbelief,  stand  up  and  with  solemn  sneer  cry, 
"Infidel!"  "Infidel!" 

The  same  course,  substantially,  is  pursued  toward  the  advo- 
cates of  almost  all  other  benevolent  reforms.  The  friends  of 
peace,  with  hearts  brooding  in  agony  over  the  horrors  of  war, 
have  to  encounter  the  same  opposition  from  the  expounders 
of,  and  professed  believers,  in  the  Scriptures.  The  advocatcg 
of  political  rights,  and  the  opposer  of  despotic  government, 
when  urging  the  right  and  duty  of  establishing  righteous* 
civil  government,  are  met  by  the  language  of  Paul,  "  The 
powers  that  be  are  ordained  of  God,  whosoever,  therefore, 
resisteth  the  power,  resisteth  the  ordinance  of  God,"  etc. 
These  texts,  says  the  Church,  teach  passive  obedience  to  the 
existing  government,  though  it  may  be  the  despotism  of  Nero 
or  Nicholas.  It  is,  therefore,  infidelity  to  try  to  subvert  these, 
and  establish  those  which  will  protect  instead  of  crushing  the 
liberties  of  the  people. 

Thus  it  is,  and  has  been  with  every  reform.  The  Bible 
has  been  pressed  into  the  service  of  every  form  of  error,  and 
every  abomination  in  practice.  And  now,  to  cap  the  climaxj 
its  holy  pages  arc  tortured  into  a  seeming  justification  of  the 
present  unspeakably  atrocious  slave-catching  bill  of  Congress. 
The  most  important  cause  of  the  current  unbelief  in  Scripture 
is,  therefore,  obvious.  We  have,  for  one,  no  hesitation  in 
saying,  that  if  we  believed  the  prevailing  interpretation  of  the 
Bible,  in  regard  to  the  various  evils  of  which  we  have  spoken 
was  correct,  we  should  be  an  infidel.  A  book  which  justifies, 
by  direct  precept,  or  by  fair  inference,  slavery  or  drunkenness, 


^Er.  oaSEPlI  GORDOGf.  Bit 

Ot  traf,  ot  ttie  divine  right  of  kings,  is  a  book  of  abomina^ 
tions,  and,  therefore,  not  a  revelation  from  a  God  of  immacu- 
late justice  and  holiness.  The  Church  and  the  commentators 
say,  that  the  Bible  does  contain  this  justification  of  thess 
evils;  the  opposers  of  them  accept  the  interpretation  which 
they  give,  and  consequently  reject  the  Bible.  We  reject  both 
the  premises  and  conclusion. 

The  Bible  not  only  does  not  Banction,  but  most  pointedlj 
and  terribly  denounces  all  these  evils.  In  that  fact  we  find 
evidence  of  its  inspiration.  The  remedy  for  the  form  of 
infidelity  of  which  we  have  spoken  is,  then,  perfectly  evident. 
That  remedy  is  simply  a  true  interpretation  of  the  Bible — an 
interpretation  which  will  exhibit  its  teachings,  in  harmony 
■with  all  practical  benevolence,  and  all  true  reform.  If  the 
Bible  is  left  in  the  hands  of  those  who  are  now,  by  pro- 
slavery  and  other  false  interpretations,  bringing  it  into  con- 
tempt, infidelity  will  continue  to  spread.  To  rescue  the  Scrip-' 
tures  from  their  professed  friends,  who  are  thus  distorting 
their  pages,  is  the  work  of  those  reformers  who  believe  in 
their  inspiration. 


The  WaiTeR-Killer  Acquitted. 

Herbert,  the  California  ruffian  who  killed  Keating,  a73 
Irish  waiter  in  a  Washington  hotel,  in  an  affray  excited  by 
his  own  insolence,  has  been  acquitted.  No  one,  we  presume, 
acquainted  with  Washington  society  and  Washington  courts, 
expected  anything  else.  "  Moreover,"  says  Solomon,  "  I  saw 
tinder  the  sun,  the  place  of  judgment,  that  wickedness  Vfsta 
there,  and  the  place  of  righteousftess  that  iniquity  was  there." 
Were  the  Jewish  sage  living  iiow,  he  would  find  that  in  thi? 
particular,  there  is  nothing  new  under  the  sun.  It  costs  a 
member  of  Congress  0300  to  beat  a  Senator  nigh  unto  death, 
and  an  Irish  laborei*,  whose  only  oifense  was  resenting  a  foul 
insult  to  the  mother  who  bore  him,  may  be  killed  by  "  hon- 
orable "  murderers  for  nothing.  The  wife  of  the  murdered 
tnan  has  died  broken -hearted-skilled  by  her  great  sorrow. 
From  the  shock  which  she  endured  when  the  bloody  and 
lifeless  body  of  her  husband  was  brought  to  her  presence, 
she  never  recovered.  She  had  loved  that  piece  of  lifeless 
clay.  Beneath  the  coarse  garment  of  honest  poverty  a  warm 
heart  had  throbbed,  on  which  she  had  often  nestled  her  head 


812  LIFE  AND   WRITINGS   OF 

in  the  confiding  trust  of  a  bappy  love.  Far  away  over  the 
blue  ocean,  in  green  old  Ireland,  they  had  plighted  their 
troth  in  the  glad  days  of  youth.  In  search  of  a  home  they 
had  crossed  the  broad  sea  together.  By  humble  but  honest 
toil  the  husband  was  earning  bread  for  his  wife  and  little  one. 
Peace  smiled  upon  their  home,  which  though  lowly,  was  all 
the  world  to  them.  But  in  a  moment  the  husband  and  father 
is  stricken  down,  because  he  could  not  meekly  endure  the 
most  foul  and  frallin<r  insult  to  himself  and  hi?  mother.  He 
is  carried  breathless  and  bloody  to  the  presence  of  his  wife, 
whose  heart  breaks  with  the  shock ;  and  now  the  bodies  of 
both  molder  to  dust,  side  by  side.  Their  child  survives,  a 
fatherless  and  motherless  orphan. 

But  the  murderer  walks  free,  ready  in  his  pride  of  place 
and  power,  to  shoot  down  the  next  poor  man  who  may  have 
the  manliness  to  resent  his  insolence.  He  sits  as  a  legislator 
for  a  professedly  Christian  people.  He,  with  his  brother 
assassin.  Brooks,  is  a  delegate  to  the  Cincinnati  Convention, 
and  both  are  prominent  members  of  the  party.  The  assassin, 
with  the  blood  of  a  double  murder  upon  his  hands,  sits  as  a 
law-maker  in  the  national  Congress,  and  the  members  of  his 
own  party  vote  almost  unanimously  against  an  inquiry  into 
his  crime.  Thus  his  party  indorses  his  guilt,  and  makes  it 
its  own. 

This  case  is  another  mournful  evidence  of  the  deep  corrup- 
tion which  is  pervading  the  courts  of  justice,  and  the  public 
sentiment  of  this  Iand> 


DATE  DUE 

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